Newcastle University

A series of events, timed to coincide with the summer Congregation period, marked Lord Patten’s retirement.

The first of these, a public lecture, was delivered by the Chancellor to a packed Curtis Auditorium on Monday 6 July. The lecture was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, who said: “It has been my great good fortune to have had Lord Patten of Barnes as Chancellor during my first two years in office. He has been supportive, good humoured and wise”.

Lord Patten chose the theme “Ten years in a gown: some reflections on a decade of change in and outside the University”. In it, he talked about the economic and political pressures on British universities, and said that universities should consider themselves pillars of society, with an important role to play in elevating the debate about education and about wider political issues.

During the week, Lord Patten presided over 10 graduation ceremonies. At his final ceremony, on Wednesday afternoon, the Registrar, Dr John Hogan, thanked him on behalf of the 13,000 students he had graduated over his 10 years in office.

In accordance with tradition, to mark his retirement the University commissioned a portrait of Lord Patten to hang in King’s Hall alongside the portraits of previous Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors. The portrait was unveiled during a reception attended by current and retired staff, students and alumni.

Lord Patten chose James Lloyd, a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and winner of the Ondaatje Prize for portraiture in 2008, to paint his portrait after being impressed by his works during visits to the National Portrait Gallery and the 2008 Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition at the Mall Gallery.

Mr Lloyd has exhibited widely in British galleries, and in Germany and New York. Among his recent commissions, he has painted the portraits of former England cricket captain, Nasser Hussain, Kenneth Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer in John Major’s Conservative government, and the biographer, Hilary Spurling.

Reflecting on his decade in office, Lord Patten said: “To be associated with academic life – with those who teach and learn and push back the boundaries of scholarship – is a great privilege. I am hugely grateful to Newcastle for allowing me to wear its great black and gold robe – hot as it is on a July afternoon – for the last 10 years.”

The Chairman of Council and Pro-Chancellor, Olivia Grant, said: “Chris Patten’s legacy from his decade in office is to leave Newcastle University perfectly positioned to meet the challenges facing higher education as we move towards the second decade of the 21st century”.

• Lord Patten’s lecture will shortly be available online on the Public Lectures website.

Photo caption: Lord Patten and James Lloyd with the Chancellor’s portrait. Photograph by Simon Veit-Wilson.

As part of the ONE Show’s quest to promote the nation’s scientific geniuses, the crew enlisted the help of the University to carry out an experiment to highlight the work of North East engineer Sir Joseph Swan.

Their aim was to test the design of Swan's original lightbulb - lighting it for the first (and possibly only) time on television.

With the help of Professors Ian Edwards and Dermot Roddy and the lab team from the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, the crew filmed the switching on of a replica of Swan’s original light bulb.

“It was an historic moment captured on film,” said Prof Edwards. “Before switching it on we didn’t know if the bulb would actually work but it actually shone quite brightly before blowing out.”

The replica bulb is one of several held at the University, including six of Swan’s originals dating back to the early 1900’s.

Brian Smith, Laboratory supervisor in EECE, added: “The replica was made here in the EECE laboratory in 1978 to mark 100 years of the light bulb.”

Swan received a British patent for his light bulb in 1878, about a year before US inventor Thomas Alva Edison.  Despite this, it is still a common misconception that Edison invented the light bulb.

Caption: Professor Ian Edwards with ONE Show presenter Marty Jopson.

Based at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle University, this centre of excellence is jointly funded by three charities - Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia Research and the North of England Children’s Cancer Research Fund.

The guests heard how collaboration will be the key to the success of the Centre, which will make it easier for researchers to work alongside doctors treating patients on the ward. This enables patients to benefit as soon as possible from any breakthroughs in research.

During a tour of the clinical and laboratory facilities researchers also explained how the aim is to provide personalised medicine with fewer side effects and to improve outcomes for patients.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Phillip Powell of the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NHS Foundation Trust said, ‘Research forms part of the bigger picture and without research we are not going to move forward. We look forward to new treatments coming online in the next few years.’

Links to the press release and also, BBC online coverage or the Chronicle article.

Five awards have been made by Professor Chris Brink, in recognition of staff who have made a marked impact on enhancing the student learning experience. Awards are made in two categories, early career academics and experienced practitioners.

The winners of the 2009 Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in the Support of Teaching and Learning are: 

* Mr Justin Durham, Walport Clinical Lecturer in Oral Surgery, School of Dental Sciences, who has created a virtual, vertically and horizontally integrated clinical anatomy course, introducing ‘key topics’ seminars and ‘blame-free’ revision programmes prior to final professional examinations.

* Dr Lee Fawcett, Lecturer in Statistics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, who has introduced formative and summative computer-based assessments, used real-life datasets and examples, and produced videos to demonstrate and allow review of complex calculations.

* Dr Magnus Williamson, Senior Lecturer and Head of Music, in the School of Arts and Cultures, who encourages students to take a role in directing their own learning by guiding the direction of seminars and classes to particular areas of concern and interest.

* Dr Nick Megoran - on the right of the picture - and Dr Alex Jeffrey, Lecturers in Human Geography, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, who use innovative approaches to assessment, such as the use of a ‘creative dialogue’, which allows students to explore theoretical aspects of geopolitics in a creative and up-to-date fashion.

* Dr Stacy Gillis, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, who uses e-learning, diverse assessment models, development of study groups, and mentoring and training of postgraduates, as well as peer assessment for group presentations.

Staff and students were invited to nominate candidates for the awards and a  total of 38 portfolios were put forward. Professor Brink said he was delighted at the range and quality of work being undertaken.

Professor Ella Ritchie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), said: “It was a real pleasure to see the wide range of staff who are doing such impressive work in supporting teaching and learning and the panel had a very hard task to draw up a shortlist from the excellent applications received.

The Quality in Learning and Teaching Service (QuILT) website has further details of the winning entries.

Launched today by the Technology Strategy Board, the Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Project will see an initial 35 electric vehicles - including cars, taxis and minibuses - being tested in the region, together with a network of charging points.

The scheme will be monitored by Newcastle University's Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) who will be using a series of sensors to determine how efficient the new cars are and how they are used.

Professor Phil Blythe, Head of TORG, said the aim was to inform new traffic management plans that would improve urban air quality and influence the way we travel.

“We are already monitoring pollution levels in a few cities across the UK using the sensor technology,” he explained.

“By fitting the electric cars with GPS technology, we are looking to find out how people use their car – journey length, time etc – to build up a real-life picture that can be used to create new, sustainable transport systems.”

More than 340 electric and other low carbon vehicles are being tested in eight separate projects across the UK.

The first vehicle is expected to be an executive minibus with the trials taking place in Newcastle and Gateshead, where the first charging points are to be installed.

Sir Liam, pictured, has been the Chief Medical Officer for England and the UK’s Chief Medical Adviser since 1998.  He has strong links with the National Health Service in the Northern region and has been an honorary Professor of Applied Epidemiology at Newcastle University since 1989.

Sir Liam’s appointment as the successor to Lord Patten of Barnes, who retires as Chancellor on 31 July after ten years in office, was approved by the University’s Convocation on Saturday, 20 June, on the recommendation of Court and Senate.

The Chancellor is the ceremonial head of the University and plays a key advisory role as well as being a public representative and senior ambassador.  The position is honorary and is therefore not remunerated.

The amount of time required to perform the role of Chancellor is flexible and can be varied to meet the other commitments of the post holder. Sir Liam is currently much occupied with his role as the ‘nation’s doctor’ and, in particular, action to control the spread of influenza.  His coming appointment at Newcastle will in no way affect this role or his other responsibilities.

Sir Liam said: 'I lived and worked on Tyneside in a formative period of my life and career.  Nothing could give me greater pride than taking up the post of Chancellor in such a great city and in a university fit for the challenges of the 21st Century.'

Jack Jeffery, Chair of Convocation, said: 'Sir Liam will be a worthy successor to Lord Patten.  The University and the region are fortunate that Sir Liam has signified his willingness to become the next Chancellor.'

Sir Liam is only the 15th person to hold the important and historic post of Chief Medical Officer for England and UK Chief Medical Adviser since it was established in 1858.  Before that, he held senior posts in the NHS in the North East.  He was Regional Medical Officer and later Chief Executive Officer for the Northern Regional Health Authority.

Since coming into his present post, Sir Liam has authored a series of ground-breaking reports aimed at transforming a wide range of areas of health, health care and medical science, for example: producing the country’s first comprehensive health protection strategy; proposing new legislation to allow carefully regulated stem cell research; addressing poor clinical performance; introducing a comprehensive programme for patient safety and empowering patient self-management of chronic disease.

Sir Liam has received honours and awards from many public bodies.  His published writing and research on health and health care subjects is very extensive and he has given many keynote addresses at conferences.  He is an experienced broadcaster and public communicator.

When Professor Sugata Mitra wanted to attend the inauguration of a new Self Organised Learning Environment (SOLE) in India, he simply turned on his computer and logged onto Skype. He even managed to cut a ribbon to celebrate the event live from his office in Newcastle.

Skype* plays a central role in Professor Mitra’s current work to raise children’s aspirations and get good teaching into remote locations both here and abroad.

The new SOLE in Shirgaon includes video conferencing options, broadband access and nine computers accessible inside the facility with a further two outside. It will accommodate up to 36 children, with four at each computer (the ideal group size for self-learning).

Children will use games, quiz programs, web surfing and Skype interaction with teachers abroad to expand their knowledge.
 
“Competition drives the learning process, while self organization provides the means, and the absence of authority figures enables the children to experiment with knowledge without fear of reprisal or assessment,” explained Professor Mitra.

The students will be able to request help from teachers located abroad who are using broadband access and web cameras and volunteer for one hour every week. To date, over 200 highly skilled teachers have responded to a media call for volunteers.

“A web based calendar tells children about the mediators available, their subject areas and the time they will be online,” said Professor Mitra. “It will be left to the children to select and use these mediators.

“We expect that, over a period of time, ‘favourite’ teachers will emerge and the process will self organize.”

The opening of the new unit, in the village of Shirgaon, Maharashtra, India, was the final part of the Orient Global Project, which began in late 2007.

Through this project, initiated by Professor James Tooley, SOLE educational facilities have been set up in remote areas of India to enable groups of children to teach themselves and pass government high school examinations on their own.

The 'hole in the wall' style facility outside the new SOLE in Shirgaon (pictured) is part of Professor Mitra's earlier experiments. It has just been refurbished with the help of a donation from a couple in the UK, who read about Professor Mitra’s work in the Guardian.

* Skype is an application which allows people across the world to see each other and talk for free over the Internet

From Monday 15 June, work is due to begin on the second phase of the landscaping project around King's Walk and Union lawn.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of September, with work being carried out in several phases.

The nature of the project means that there will be different access routes into the students' Union Building and Northern Stage during certain phases of the work. New site hoardings and directional signage will be installed around the area in an attempt to minimise inconvenience to staff, students, theatre-goers and other visitors to the campus during this period.

Two further major landscaping projects will also be carried out during the summer vacation. From mid-June, work will commence on the development of the Robinson Quadrangle, while the re-landscaping of the Old Quadrangle will begin on Monday 13 July. The Robinson Quad project covers the area between the front of the Robinson Library and the entrance to Hadrian Bridge, and involves the creation of a new entrance into the Politics Department, as well as the installation of new cycle sheds, a circular seating area and a public artwork.

Elsewhere, this weekend artwork panels are due to be installed to the existing hoardings along the length of St Thomas's Street affected by the development of the INTO project.

Web links to further information:

Creating a campus for the future: Edition 2 (pdf format)

Previous Newslink article on King's Walk re-development

The lecture, entitled ‘Ten Years in a Gown: Some Reflections on a Decade of Change In and Outside the University’ will take place on Monday 6 July.

Lord Patten was formally installed as the third Chancellor of Newcastle University in October 1999. He has served alongside three successive Vice-Chancellors – Mr James Wright, Sir Christopher Edwards, and latterly, Professor Chris Brink – and has helped guide the University through a sustained period of growth and development.

An outspoken critic of the government’s handling of funding for higher education, Lord Patten has repeatedly called for bigger public investment in UK universities and greater encouragement for them to raise more money from the private sector.

Admission to the lecture, at 6.00pm in the Curtis Auditorium in the Herschel Building, Newcastle University is free, but you are asked to apply for tickets, which are available now, by calling 0191 222 6136 or by sending an e-mail to public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk.

Link to further information:

Insights information page

Newcastle University crews won three of the championships events at the 175th anniversary Tyne Regatta, held on Sunday 7 June over a 1500m, four lane course on the Tyne at Newburn.

The Club won the Rington Challenge Cup (pictured) for Championship Eights, with both the men’s and women’s crews beating Durham University crews into second place, while newly-elected Newcastle University Boat Club President, Andy Corrigan, won the Black Diamond Chalice cup for Championship Single Sculls.

Victories for the men’s elite coxless four, including current President, Mason Durant, and a women’s elite double of Abby Johnston and Lucy Glendinning added to the haul of silverware. The crews were presented with their trophies by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Councillor Michael Cookson.

The rowers were competing in the Tyne Regatta as part of their preparations for Women's Henley on 21 and 22 June, and Henley Royal Regatta, which takes place from 1 – 6 July.

Head Coach of the Boat Club, Angelo Savarino, praised the dedication of the rowers: “Their current great form is a reflection of how much hard work our men and women put into their sport," he said. “Several of them were competing – and winning races - at Hexham Regatta on Saturday morning, but they came straight back to train on the river on Saturday afternoon in preparation for Sunday’s competition," he added.

Founded in 1834, the Tyne Regatta is the second oldest regatta in the country after Chester Regatta.

The University’s former Deputy-Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Goddard, is Chairman of the Tyne Regatta Committee. The Committee aims to breathe new life into the historic Tyne Regatta, to enable North East rowers to compete with the best crews from elsewhere for prestigious trophies and the accolade “Champions of Tyne”.

Web links to further information:

Newcastle University Boat Club

Tyne Regatta

• Thursday 25 June, at 2pm in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
• Friday 26 June, at 11am in Room F13, Stephenson Building
• Friday 26 June, at 3pm in Room F13, Stephenson Building

Staff are advised to book online as soon as possible.

For further information about the roadshows, please email Katie Coward at Admiral PR, phone her on 0191 222 0722 or visit the strategic positioning website

Previous Newslink article

As reported in NewsLink on 11 May, the UCU is claiming an eight per cent pay rise in national negotiations and an assurance that any pay settlement will not jeopardise job security.

The Universities and Colleges Employers has offered 0.4 per cent and points out that staff pay has risen by a minimum of 15.9 per cent during the current three year pay deal, which is due to end in July.

When the UCU announced the ballot, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, wrote to all staff at Newcastle University to encourage them to engage in the debate and for UCU members to cast their votes.

The UCU is quoted by the BBC as saying that it intends to go ahead with the ballot this Autumn.

Further information is available via the University’s Human Resources website.

Steve McLean, Senior Manager at the Museum, said: “It is staggering that so many people visited us. We have been getting some great comments – one visitor said it was the best attraction in the North East.”

The new museum houses internationally-important collections from the original Hancock Museum, Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities and the Shefton Museum. Among the highlights of the museum are a planetarium, a unique bio-wall displaying the diversity of life on Earth, a life-size replica T. rex skeleton, mummies from Ancient Egypt, a large scale model of Hadrian's Wall and a display of many of its treasures, and a superb collection of ancient Greek art and archaeology.

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, visited the museum for a preview before it opened to the public on Saturday 23 May. “The Great North Museum is going to be another brilliant addition to the cultural landscape of the North East and the whole country. I know how important the Hancock Museum was locally, and I’m sure this bigger venture – bringing the Hancock together with the Hatton Gallery and the Resource Centre – will become just as well loved and well visited.”

Around 1,000 members of University staff and students were also given a whistle-stop tour of the museum ahead of the opening day. Among them was Fiona Pearson, from the Estates Security office, who said it was ‘fabulous’. She was so impressed with what the museum had to offer that she took her son Jack, 7, to the opening day.

“We absolutely loved it”, said Fiona. “There is so much to see, we spent the whole afternoon visiting the different galleries and still didn’t manage to see everything. Jack loved the T. rex and the bio-wall.  The fact that entry to the museum is free is fantastic too”, she said.

And Dr John Bull, a senior lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, commented: “I think they have made a really good job of the museum. I enjoyed it, and I would definitely visit again in the future”.

• Until 14 June, visitors will also have the chance to see a special exhibition ¬– The Making of The Great North Museum: Hancock – featuring a collection of photographs documenting the transformation of the former Hancock Museum into the spectacular Great North Museum: Hancock. From packing up thousands of objects in 2006 to installing them in the new museum in 2009, this exhibition provides a flavour of the four year re-development project.

For more information, visit the Tyne and Wear Museums website.

The Great North Museum: Hancock is open Monday to Saturday 10.00 am – 5.00 pm, and Sunday 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm. Admission is free.

This year’s celebrations mark the retirement of Jack Jeffery as Chair of Convocation, after a decade in the role, and the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar will be amongst the group bidding Jack farewell.

Convocation is the annual meeting of the Alumni Association, and enables graduates to have a say in the running of the University. It includes an address from the Vice-Chancellor, laying out his plans for the coming year, and precedes the keynote Convocation Lecture, which will be delivered by renowned environmentalist Professor Norman Myers on the subject of environment and sustainability.

Later in the day, guests will be able to take a guided tour of the brand new Great North Museum, or join in events around campus, including the eightieth anniversary of Geography at Newcastle.

The day will climax with a Northumbrian-themed evening of food and entertainment at the Great North Museum, which will include a performance by local folk and jazz musicians, Landermason.

Although this will be Jack Jeffery’s final outing as Chair of Convocation, his tenure officially ends on 31 July.

The University’s Registrar, Dr John Hogan, said: "Jack has been a great supporter of the University for many years, and his contribution as Chair of Convocation has been particularly useful.

"His commitment to the success of the University and his wealth of experience have been great assets to us," added Dr Hogan. ‘We are fortunate that he will continue to serve on Court and we wish him all the best for the future."

Jack graduated from the University with a BSc in Chemistry and Bacteriology in 1953, before earning an MSc in Applied Science in 1960. Following a career in the water industry, he is now Chairman and member of the Board of Directors for a number of organisations, and Chair of Northumbria Larder, the North East regional food group. In recognition of his support of the University, Jack was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2005.   

For full details of the Reunite! 2009 programme, and to book your place, visit the Reunite! website or contact Maria Szpitun.

The theme chosen by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is 'Your Planet Needs You - UNite to Combat Climate Change'.

Newcastle University’s WED event promises to be fun and educational, with attractions including an outdoor BBQ, veggie box competition, guidance on home energy efficiency and free prize draws.

Staff are invited to come along and learn more about what the university is doing and what each of us can do to reduce our impact on the environment.

Look out for the marquee on Claremont Quad from 11am - 3pm with various attractions covering the areas of climate change, biodiversity, waste and transport.

The event will include free tree saplings, which can be ordered on the day to be delivered at a later date. This free giveaway supports the UNEP 7 Billion Tree Campaign, which aims to have one new tree planted for every person alive as an empowering symbol of the global public's desire for action to tackle this generation’s greatest challenge.

For more information contact Daniel O'Connor, Waste Manager.

The input of staff is regarded as vital to the development of ‘strategic positioning’, which concerns the University’s reputation, how and what it communicates and to whom.

Strategic positioning is part of a far-reaching review of the University's objectives, vision and values. This includes the ongoing development of the campus.

Five roadshows, each lasting no more than 90 minutes, have been organised. Staff are advised to book online as soon as possible. The dates are:

• Thursday 25 June, at 2pm in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
• Thursday 25 June, at 4pm in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
• Friday 26 June, at 11am in Room F13, Stephenson Building
• Friday 26 June, at 1pm in Room F13, Stephenson Building
• Friday 26 June, at 3pm in Room F13, Stephenson Building

The Strategic Positioning Review is being led by Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engagement), who said: "We came up with the idea of these roadshows to supplement the formal consultations we’re organising through faculty channels.

"We wanted to make sure that anyone who has strong feelings about the image the University projects to the world gets the chance to make their contribution.  Only a truly shared vision of what the University stands for will have the ring of authenticity in the wider world, so we must all work together to find meaningful ways to express our vision and values.

"The strategic positioning team looks forward to working with you, and to benefitting from your contributions to shape the University’s future."

A strategic positioning website is now available to provide more details on this topic.  For further information about the roadshows, please e-mail Katie Coward at Admiral PR or phone her on 0191 222 0722.

Among the highlights of the new museum are a planetarium, a unique bio-wall displaying the diversity of life on Earth, a life-size replica T. rex skeleton, mummies from Ancient Egypt, a large scale model of Hadrian's Wall and a display of many of its treasures, and a superb collection of ancient Greek art and archaeology.

The new museum will house internationally-important collections from the original Hancock Museum, Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities and the Shefton Museum. The University's Hatton Gallery is also part of the Great North Museum but remains in its existing building.

Professor Paul Younger, Newcastle University pro-vice-chancellor for engagement, and chair of the Great North Museum board, said: "The collections which have been brought together for the first time in this stunning redevelopment of the Hancock Museum are nothing short of astounding.

"From more than half a million items, 3,500 are on display in our new galleries, combining the fruits of the labours of Victorian scholars from the North East of England with the very latest graphic technology. Not only is the result jaw-droppingly impressive, it also unlocks the research potential of this world class collection for generations to come."

The Great North Museum: Hancock is situated in the former Hancock Museum, which closed its doors three years ago to undergo its transformation, thanks to a £8.75 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

More details in previous Newslink article

Great North Museum website

The UCU is seeking an improved pay offer from the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and an assurance that this will not jeopardise job security.

In his letter, of 30 April, Professor Chris Brink told staff: "Even if you are not a member of the UCU, this ballot and the potential industrial action may have an impact on your workplace.

"Such an important decision should be taken on the basis of a well informed and open debate, with all the facts being freely available."

The UCU is claiming an eight per cent pay rise in national negotiations.  UCEA has offered 0.3 per cent but says that staff pay has risen by a minimum of 15.9 per cent during the current three year pay deal, which is due to end in July.

Professor Brink has subsequently written to the UCU branch, stressing that Newcastle University is currently not in any immediate financial difficulties but that pay restraint is essential in the current economic climate.

"Newcastle University is in the fortunate position to have a surplus currently but I am acutely conscious that in the current economic climate our financial plans must be prudent," he said in the letter to the UCU.

"The increase in USS (pensions) contributions from October 2009 will cost the University £1.9 million in addition to rising pay costs which will be 56 per cent of income in 2009/10 compared to 54 per cent last year.

"We expect cuts of up to £1 million in HEFCE funding for 2009/10 as a consequence of the recent Budget and 2010/11 will bring further reductions in the real level of funding which will increase pressure on budgets.

"On the assumption of restraint on pay increases, we do not believe that compulsory redundancies will be necessary as a response to this situation within the coming year.  In the longer term we are actively considering delays in filling vacancies, whether staff will be replaced and other means to achieve the required savings," said Professor Brink.

The UCU, which has 884 members among Newcastle University’s 4,899 staff, closes its ballot on 22 May.  The other trade unions representing staff have not called a ballot and are continuing to negotiate with UCEA.

Further information is available via the pay negotiations web page on the University’s Human Resources website.

Staff are being encouraged to submit entries for the 2009 Times Higher Education awards, held annually to celebrate the very best higher education has to offer. 

 This year teaching and research will be recognised in new categories along with 16 other awards ranging from 'Research Project of the Year' to awards for outstanding support for students, excellence and innovation in the Arts and Widening Participation Initiative of the Year.

The new awards will honour inspirational researchers, as well as honouring the Most Innovative Teacher of the Year. 

For more information and to enter the THE Awards, go online to Times Higher Awards.

The deadline for entries is 5 June 2009.

Newcastle University has agreed to help distribute the leaflets to its halls of residence when they are available.  The DoH is currently sending information to all households in the UK.

There are currently no reported cases of swine ‘flu at Newcastle University.  However, five students came into contact with a confirmed case last month (April) and were given antivirals as a precaution.

Advice from the Health Protection Agency for contacts of a confirmed case of swine ‘flu is that, if they have no ‘flu-like symptoms, there is no need for them to isolate themselves, even if they are medical students or healthcare workers.

The HPA said that ‘all appropriate public health actions have been taken' and that it was quite safe for students and staff to come into the University. This included students and staff in the same subject areas/University buildings as the students who had been in contact with the confirmed case.

However, the University fully understands that staff, students and their families may be concerned about swine ‘flu and has set up an information website for staff and students. The Department of Health has set up a swine 'flu information line for the public on 0800 1 513 513.

Advice published by the HPA is that general infection control practices and good respiratory and hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including human swine influenza. This includes:

•    Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, preferably with a tissue;

•    Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully;

•    Maintaining good basic hygiene - washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people;

•    Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product;

•    Making sure children follow this advice.

Any students or staff who have concerns about their health are advised, in the first instance, visit the 'online symptom checker' on the NHS Direct website or contact their GP or NHS Direct on 0845 46 47.

Newcastle University is working with Microsoft, IBM and Philips to establish a major research centre to bring the benefits of digital technology to more people.

Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, announced that three new research “hubs”, based at Newcastle, Nottingham and Aberdeen universities, will develop digital technology aimed at transforming the lives of the elderly, disabled, and people in rural communities.

Key projects at Newcastle's £12m Digital Economy Research Hub include:

• An 'ambient kitchen', designed to look like a normal kitchen but with sensors, projectors and electronic equipment to aid people suffering from dementia who wish to lead independent lives.
• Digital jewellery, containing hidden digital technology such as communication devices, which can keep people in touch or cause the jewellery to stimulate a memory or emotion, for example by displaying an image.
• Pedestrian Satnav that can give older people the assistance they need to continue walking around their neighbourhoods, shopping centres and even large retail outlets.
• GPS locators enabling people with dementia to go out and about - while their families can keep track of them, in case they lose their way or risk straying into danger.

The team will work with a group of 3,000 volunteers including people from a range of age groups and with a variety of disabilities and learning difficulties.  Collaborations with Philips Research, IBM and Microsoft will be developed, while Age Concern, the Alzheimer's Society and other charities will be closely involved.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, said: "This is an excellent example of how world class research can directly benefit society.  Digital technology is changing the world in which we live and it is important that everyone shares in the advantages. Newcastle University is proud to be tackling this societal challenge."

Pictured is an example of digital jewellery, 'Blossom'.  The petals unfold after a certain amount of rain falls, stirring memories of the owner's grandmother's farm in Cyrpus, where the rain sensor is located.

Further details of the hub and associated projects can be found in a press release on the University website and on the Inclusion Through the Digital Economy web page.

The hub involves all three Faculties. Those involved are: The Informatics Research Institute; Culture Lab; Institute of Ageing & Health; the Schools of Computing Science; Arts & Cultures; Geography, Politics & Sociology; Civil Engineering & Geosciences; Mechanical and Systems Engineering; Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering; the Business School, the Beacons for Public Engagement project and Information Systems and Services.



 

A new initiative will make it easier for widening participation students to apply to a research-intensive university.

Newcastle is one of 11 universities signing up to the 'Mutual Recognition Scheme' which is designed to encourage students to think beyond their home town when applying to university.

Any student who has already taken part in a widening access activity at their local university (such as attending summer school) can now choose to have this taken into account when applying to any of the other ten institutions. This will enable them not only to demonstrate their commitment and potential for higher education study, but also afford a greater student experience.

Lucy Backhurst, Head of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions at Newcastle University, said: "The scheme aims to raise students' aspirations. The universities in the partnership are all keen to identify able students with potential, but who require additional motivation and support, both to apply to Higher Education, and make a successful transition."

The universities taking part in the scheme are Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, King’s College London, Leicester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton and Warwick.

This is your last chance to influence the development of the staff magazine. The NewsLink survey will close at Midnight tomorrow, Thursday 30 April. The editors would really welcome your views.

If you wish to have your say about how the staff newsletter should inform, entertain, help staff feel part of the University community, then do complete the surve - it will take only five minutes or so. You can also sign up to be involved in one of our focus groups.

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Rowers from Newcastle and Durham University Boat Clubs have staged the traditional challenge to compete against each another in the annual University Boat Race, which this year takes place on Saturday 9 May.

Races will be battled out between the University freshmen's and freshwomen's eights, and men's and women's first (senior) eights, over an 1,800 metre course from Dunston Staithes to the finish line under the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The event also includes a schools' race, between composite crews from schools in Northumberland, Newcastle and Durham.

This year is the 13th anniversary of the event, and Newcastle University Boat Club will be hoping that it won't prove to be unlucky for them, as they prepare to try to overturn their defeat in all four of last year's races at the hands of their Durham arch-rivals.

Dave Clasper, rowing historian and great great nephew of Tyne rowing legend, Harry Clasper, presided as Mason Durant, President of Newcastle University Boat Club issued the challenge to Olly Offord, President of Durham University Boat Club, by handing over the ceremonial oar blade.

Mason (pictured left) commented: “Our preparations are going well for the Boat Race this year. The senior men's eight have had a change of crew since earlier races in the year and have found some extra speed.

“I wouldn't say we are a superstitious club, but we do feel that we have a very good chance as a club this year at the Boat Race as we have good novice men and women's squads. We will race the eights at the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) regatta in Nottingham this weekend against some of the other top universities in the country, which will give us some valuable racing experience”, he added.

The Senior Men's Eights compete for a trophy which is named in honour of Harry Clasper. Mr Clasper said: “Thanks to the University Boat Race, and the commitment of all of the outstanding young athletes in both University Boat Clubs, the North East is steadily regaining the reputation for rowing excellence it once enjoyed.”

• Watch Mason Durant and Olly Offord talking about the Boat Race on the Journal Live web site

The University Boat Race

The 13th University Boat Race takes place on the River Tyne on Saturday 9 May. Land- and river-based entertainment begins at 3.30 pm, with the first race of the afternoon - the schools' eights - scheduled to start at 4.30 pm. 

For more information see full press release. 

For details of the event schedule, please see the Centre for Physical Recreation and Sport web site.

The University's senior management team has decided to forego a pay rise this year, in the light of the global economic situation.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, and ten other members of the Executive Board, took the decision ahead of next month's meeting of the Remuneration Committee, which normally determines an appropriate pay package.

Professor Brink said: "The University is mindful of the effects that the recession is having on the lives of many people and it would seem prudent to show restraint in a sector which receives substantial public funding.

"So far, the University's financial position has not been seriously affected by the recession but the Executive felt that they should be sensitive to public feeling and exercise restraint during the current difficulties."

Discussions between the Universities and Colleges Employers Association and trade unions regarding the 2009 pay negotiations, for those staff covered by national arrangements, began on 30 March and further talks are planned for 27 April. Details are available on the Human Resources website.

Newcastle University has successfully bid for a share of £27 million Government funding for higher education institutions to help individuals and businesses during the economic downturn.

Recent graduates and postdoctoral researchers who are looking for work or who want to start up in business will be the main beneficiaries of a six-point action plan drawn up by the University, which has attracted funding of £488,000 from the Economic Challenge Investment Fund (ECIF).

A total of 77 ECIF awards were announced by Higher Education Minister David Lammy on Thursday, 9 April. The funding is provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Newcastle University's six-point plan makes provision for:

Widening access to the Careers Service's Information, Advice and Guidance service for graduates. Access to short courses, coaching and online careers information will be extended from the last two years' graduates to those of the last three years and the Careers Service will be open to graduates looking for work who studied outside the region but are now resident here.

Extending the Graduate Apprenticeship Programme. The Careers Service will extend its Newcastle Work Experience scheme, already working successfully for current students, to include 50 alumni of the last three years who are now unemployed or under-employed. The programme is a business-led activity, offering regional firms a subsidy to run 12-week graduate apprenticeship placements.

Enterprisers' Courses. The Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Cambridge University will provide Enterpriser Courses for 80 unemployed and under-employed Newcastle graduates of the last ten years. This will involve experiential learning to build self-confidence, unlock creativity and remove barriers to enterprising activity.

Business Start-up grants. The Careers Service will offer start-up grants of up to £2,000 for Newcastle graduates of the last decade who are considering setting up their own businesses in the region.

Business Start-up advisers. To accommodate under-employed graduates of the last ten years, the Careers Service will extend the availability of trained business advisers on-campus from two days to three days per week and offer evening appointments.

Coaching Postdocs for Commerce. The need for postdoctoral researchers to acquire skills for the workplace outside higher education is ever more pressing during the recession. A new programme of mentoring will be open to up to 50 residents of the North East who are, or have been, postdoctoral researchers at Newcastle University.

Nick Keeley, Director of the University Careers Service, who helped draft the proposals, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded this extra funding, which will enable us to build on the University's well-publicised 'Ten Step Plan', largely aimed at supporting the region's SMEs.

"We will now be able to provide a range of new activities which should directly benefit our graduates and researchers as well as recent graduates of other universities who are faced by a very challenging and competitive graduate recruitment market."

Announcing details of the awards, Mr Lammy, Higher Education Minister, said: "Universities have demonstrated across the country that they are central to the fiscal stimulus that local communities, businesses, families and young people need.

"Universities are clearly showing that they can provide a lifeline in these challenging times by offering targeted short courses to adults who have lost their jobs, by connecting small businesses to graduates and university expertise, and by offering graduates the skills and opportunities to set up their own business."

The Angel Alliance, a collaboration of Newcastle and Durham Universities and regional development agency One North East, is celebrating a major success after securing £2.6million to harness science and engineering technology which could ultimately lead to improvements in healthcare.

This is the first funded project within the Alliance and the money will be used to apply research carried out at Newcastle and Durham Universities for economic and social benefit, helping to maximise the exploitation of the scientific discoveries being made at both institutions.

The award of a Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) over the next three years will allow the results of research by engineers and physical scientists from the universities to be applied commercially to the healthcare sector.

Academic clinicians will be directly involved in demonstrating the feasibility of using the technologies in the healthcare sector. The project, "Crossing the Clinical Boundary", aims to reduce the time taken for a novel material or process to come into use.

The joint project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is also designed to create collaborative programmes between researchers and industrial users so that key challenges are addressed earlier and barriers are broken down in the application of new materials.

Technologies already patented by the universities to be exploited for the benefit of the wider community includes a sensor that is able to diagnose cystic fibrosis from a patient's sweat, computer software to increase protection of personal medical data and new imaging agents to show greater detail on MRI images.

Professor Chris Brink, Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, said: "The project builds on Newcastle's great strength in clinical medicine to provide a unique bridge between outstanding scientists and engineers in both universities and the healthcare industry."

Within the framework of the Angel Alliance all three partners are using their different expertises and resources to accelerate the development of science-based businesses in the region. The KTA represents just the first in a series of coordinated joint projects bringing Government and private funding into the region.

Newcastle’s secret garden is opening to the public this month for a free family-friendly open day.

Moorbank Botanic Garden, which is part of Newcastle University, is located on Claremont Road, about 20 minutes walk from the city centre. It is home to a tropical greenhouse, desert house, carnivorous plants and outdoor temperate collections.

Visitors to the garden can find everything from pineapples and bananas to local Northumbrian flora, with rosy periwinkles, beautiful orchids, bug-eating venus fly traps, ancient cycads and bizarre living stones.

As well as taking a tour of the garden on Saturday 18 April, visitors will have the opportunity to try their hand at a number of craft activities such as bracelet and mask making, take part in a soil and earthworm survey and make worm slime.

The survey is part of the Open Air Laboratories project (OPAL), a Big Lottery Fund initiative which aims to encourage more people to get outside to explore, study and protect their environment.

“Although earthworms are vital for healthy plant growth, relatively little is known about the 26 species that live in the UK,” explained Moorbank’s education officer Katy Barnard. “Charles Darwin was fascinated by earthworms and studied them for many years. In some of his experiments he shone different coloured lights on them, in others his son played the bassoon to them!

“This project will allow us to build up our understanding of the soil types they live in and their distribution across the country.”

OPAL will be helping the public to carry out several national surveys over the next few years, including studies of soil, air pollution, water, biodiversity and climate change. These will generate valuable scientific data concerning the state of our environment.

OPAL is also developing a wide range of local projects and future activities in the North East to include moth and butterfly trapping sessions at Moorbank and a summer art school.

The Open Day  

The Open Day will take place between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 18 April at Moorbank Botanic Garden, which is located at the top end of Claremont Road (NE2 4NL) just before the cat and dog shelter.

To find out more, please contact Katy Barnard, Moorbank Education Officer, on 0191 246 4807, email katy.barnard@ncl.ac.uk or visit the Moorbank Website

For more information about OPAL, visit www.opalexplorenature.org

The Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre is celebrating ten years of continued growth.

Back in 1998 Professor Erica Haimes, the founding Executive Director, and colleagues such as Professor John Burn in the Institute of Human Genetics, took the first steps to create a group which could bring together social scientists, scientists and clinicians  to discuss the complex issues being raised by advances in the life sciences.

PEALS won its first grant in 1999 from the William Leech Charitable Trust, an award that was key to establishing itself on the regional and national stage and enabling the group to convert its ideas and ambitions into tangible achievements.

The support of many colleagues and institutions across the region has been crucial to PEALS' success and so, during 2009, there will be several opportunities to celebrate the anniversary and to thank those colleagues and friends.

One such occasion was the tenth Spring International Symposium which brought together leading scholars from the USA, Europe and UK to consider issues associated with ‘Public Trust and the Life Sciences’.

Dr Janice McLaughlin took on the role of Executive Director in August 2008. Commenting on the first 10 years of PEALS she noted: "Following Erica into the role of Executive Director is obviously a significant challenge! I feel privileged to take on the role in a research centre so well established and recognised for being at the forefront of life science debates.

"A major aim therefore is to build on that recognition and ensure that we continue to generate research, engagement and teaching that can inform societal understanding, scientific practice and policy developments."

Web links to further information:

PEALS website

Tenth anniversary symposium

John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has been meeting Newcastle University academics as part of a countrywide tour to learn more about jobs of the future.

He came to Newcastle to hear about work on ageing and genetics including stem cells, meeting with PVC Professor Chris Day, Professor Tom Kirkwood (pictured) and other academics at the Institute of Ageing and Health. Later in the day, he moved on to the Institute of Human Genetics to talk to academics and staff there.

Professor Day said, “John Denham was keen to find out about the work we do particularly in the area of improving life for an ageing population. We discussed not only the great steps forward we are making in understanding the ageing process and in that of serious illnesses but also how this may impact on the workforce and employers in years to come.”

While visiting the Centre for Life, John Denham met with researchers to learn more about work on genetics and stem cells.

“He was very interested in the concept of world-leading scientists working in the same building as private businesses and school children, “ says Professor John Burn, Medical Director and Head of Institute of Human Genetics. “The work we do here has enormous implications for the health of future generations and he also recognised how important it is that we engage with young people and inspire them to take an interest in science.”

Children are being encouraged to grow their own five-a-day as part of a new project.

The University is working in partnership with the Derwentside Primary Care Trust on the ‘Grow Your Own Five’ project, which aims to encourage 1,000 County Durham students to find out more about growing and sourcing local food.

The projects are taking place in areas where mining communities previously established a great tradition of growing prize-winning vegetables, offering vital links to the past.

Students are learning about food miles, the history of growing vegetables and the value of locally grown produce.

Dr Aidan Doyle, who is working on the project on behalf of North East OPAL (Open-air Laboratories), has been visiting schools in the area, including Tanfield School, Specialist College of Science and Engineering. The school is serving as a hub to encourage pupils from other schools in the area (Harelaw, Shield Row, East Stanley, Burnhopfield and Tanfield Lea) to plant out and nurture five different fruits and vegetables.

The University co-ordinates the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) North East, which is responsible for The ‘Grow Your Own Five’ project (designed by Vivienne Dawson of Landscape Art and Design Services). The centre supports the aim of promoting improved access to quality education, environmental stewardship, social justice and better quality of life.

OPAL is a national scheme awarded £11.7 million by the Big Lottery Fund, designed to get people back in touch with nature. The England-wide initiative will inspire and support communities to explore, study and protect the environment by getting involved with projects in their area that are being led by local scientists.

For more information, contact Dr Aidan Doyle on 0191 246 4877 or aidan.doyle@ncl.ac.uk.

Caption: Children from East Tanfield School get to grips with growing vegetables

Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, has expressed her confidence that the soon-to-open Great North Museum will become a 'must see' attraction.

The Minister was speaking as she inspected work at the Great North Museum: Hancock, which opens to the public on Saturday 23 May.

Incorporating collections from the original Hancock Museum, the University’s Museum of Antiquities and the Shefton Museum, the Great North Museum brings together the North East’s premier collections of archaeology, natural history, geology and world cultures.

“The Great North Museum is a marvellous example of how, in some special cases, the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts," said Mrs Follet.  "By bringing collections together in the way it has, the museum has created a fascinating resource for learning as well as being a fun visitor experience. I am sure that it will become one of Newcastle's 'must see' attractions."

Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement, welcomed the Minister's enthusiastic response to the new museum. "This fantastic transformation will ensure that the Great North Museum endures for generations to come as a truly world-class cultural attraction among our city’s growing array of stunning locations."

News of the Great North Museum: Hancock has been spreading across Europe, where one of its most unusual residents recently had an opera performed about his life.

Sparkie - the talking budgie who found fame as a recording artist in the 1950s - was the inspiration for an opera by one of Britain’s most celebrated composers, Michael Nyman, and German artist, Carsten Nicolai.

The opera, entitled Sparkie: cage and beyond, had its world premiere at the Berlin Festspiele in Germany last week.

For years, the stuffed Sparkie was on show at the Hancock Museum, where visitors could drop a 2p coin in a slot and hear a tape of the budgie talking. Visitors to the new museum will be able to see and hear Sparkie again when he takes his place among the star attractions.

Photo caption: (L-R) Alec Coles, Director of Tyne & Wear Museums, Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement, Cllr Ged Bell, Chair of Tyne & Wear Joint Museums Committee.

Web link to further information: Great North Museum

The £26 million Heritage Lottery Fund-backed museum, which has taken three years to complete, incorporates collections from the Hancock Museum and the University’s Museum of Antiquities, Shefton Museum and Hatton Gallery. It brings together the North East’s premier collections of archaeology, natural history and geology to create one of the most internationally-significant and diverse collections in the country.

The Great North Museum: Hancock is part of a wider Great North Museum project involving the redevelopment of the magnificent Victorian Hancock Museum building, the management of the Hatton Gallery, and the development of an off-site store and resource centre. The project has been led by Newcastle University in partnership with Tyne and Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Great North Museum has been made possible by £8.75 million in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), in addition to generous donations from a wide range of supporters including the European Regional Development Fund, One North East, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, TyneWear Partnership, Northern Rock Foundation, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Garfield Weston Foundation, Clore Duffield Foundation and the DCMS/Wolfson Foundation Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund.

Professor Paul Younger, Newcastle University Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Chair of the Great North Museum Board, said:“The natural history and archaeological collections which have now been brought together in the Great North Museum: Hancock are the fruit of over 200 years of world-wide endeavour by North East collectors. Thorough documentation of these collections in comprehensive archives gives them great intellectual value.

“As well as a stunning addition to Newcastle’s growing array of iconic cultural centres, we now have a world-class resource that will support academic study for generations to come,” he said.

Steve McLean, Great North Museum project manager, added: “The former Hancock Museum building has undergone a fantastic transformation. The new Great North Museum charts the formation of the galaxy and planet Earth, and 500 million years of evolution. Breathtaking displays of world-class treasures bring this amazing history to life.”

Ivor Crowther, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the North East, said: “The new Great North Museum, with an investment of nearly £9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, is now ready to welcome a whole new generation of users and visitors. It will provide an invaluable resource to the people of the North East and beyond, and is a real boost to museum provision in the region.”

The Great North Museum: Hancock will feature excellent new cafes and other visitor facilities, with temporary exhibition space capable of housing some of the largest touring exhibitions. A comprehensive library will house one of the UK’s most important collections of works on natural history and archaeology. Admission to the museum will be free.

Web links to further information:

Great North Museum

Full press release

Two women who have campaigned tirelessly against domestic violence towards women and children in the North East are to be honoured by the University.

Parveen Akhtar and Parmjit Kaur Mattu will be awarded honorary Doctor of Civil Law degrees by the Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, Professor Chris Brink, at a ceremony on 3 April 2009.

They will receive their awards alongside acclaimed Newcastle-born playwright and dramatist, Lee Hall, writer of the screenplay for the 1999 smash-hit film, Billy Elliot, which gained him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and Newcastle University Naval Architecture graduates, Richard Sadler and Choo Chiau Beng.

Ms Akhtar and Ms Mattu were founder members of Panah, the first black women’s refuge in the North East, and have been key advisors on and contributors to government policy on domestic abuse, race relations, and equality and diversity.

Lee Hall has been behind some of the most innovative stage and screen productions in recent years, including Cooking with Elvis, and his most recent play, The Pitmen Painters, which opened to widespread acclaim at the Cottesloe Theatre in 2008.

Richard Sadler is now the Chief Executive Officer of world-famous marine organisation, Lloyd’s Register, while Choo Chiau Beng is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Keppel Offshore and Marine Ltd and Senior Executive Director of Keppel Corporation Ltd, one of Singapore’s most important multinational companies.

The Registrar of Newcastle University, Dr John Hogan, said: 'By awarding honorary degrees to these five individuals, Newcastle University wishes to recognise their outstanding contributions to society, culture and industry.

'We invite the North East to celebrate with us their achievements which demonstrate over again that this University, and our region, continue to produce individuals of talent and distinction.'

See the press release for further information.

Students had the chance to take their views to the top when Universities Minister, David Lammy, visited Newcastle University.

Mr Lammy met students to discuss a range of issues affecting them as part of a national student listening programme. The programme aims to give England’s 2.3 million university students a voice at the heart of Government through a series of visits by Ministers to university campuses up and down the country.

David Lammy said: “Newcastle University is home to some 18,000 students, and I am delighted to be meeting a number of them as part of this visit, because this is a real chance for open discussion.

"The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills’ Ministerial team have been engaging with students up and down the country to hear for ourselves, first hand, their concerns, aspirations and experiences. Students are better able than anyone to tell us what’s going right in the higher education system and what needs to be done better.”

At Newcastle University, the Minister wanted to hear students’ views about the advice and guidance they receive during their academic studies towards equipping them to compete in the employment market after graduation.

“On the one hand, universities are about education in its widest sense, learning for learning’s sake and developing independent thought,” said Mr Lammy. “But university also has to be about employability once students’ studies are at an end – how do we ensure that courses equip students to compete in the world of work?”, he said.

Will Richens, President of Newcastle University Students’ Union, said: “It is important that ministers take time to find out about the issues that concern students, and by far the best way to do that is to hear it from the students themselves. We had a lively discussion, and I hope that we gave Mr Lammy some food for thought to take back to the government”.

Mr Lammy’s visit coincided with Newcastle University’s Diversity Week. Earlier, he met the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, to discuss the government’s widening participation initiative and to hear more about the University’s ten-step plan to help the region’s businesses survive the current financial crisis.

Professor Brink said: “Mr Lammy’s visit was very welcome. We had a good exchange of views on the regional and national dimensions of widening participation, and the role of our university in the regional economy”.

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Staff and students got together to find out more about Malaysian culture at a special event this weekend.

Traditional dances, food and crafts were on offer at the Malaysian Night on 15 March 2009.

It was organised by the Malaysian Society Newcastle, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

The cultural event was a way of showcasing Malaysian culture and one of the highlights was a buffet dinner with food with an emphasis on Chinese, Indian and Malay cuisine.

There was also be a fashion show and performance art, along with an exhibition of traditional arts and crafts such as henna drawings and Kolam (Indian art made from coloured rice).

The main sponsors are NUmed, which is setting up a new campus in Malaysia, and Newcastle University's International Office.

Almost 50 Malaysian nationals are currently enrolled on the undergraduate medical programme and Newcastle remains one of the most popular UK destinations for Malaysian medical students studying abroad.

For information on the Malaysian Society Newcastle, email Peng Tan: p.y.tan@ncl.ac.uk  or Mazuin Talib: maztalib@hotmail.com

For more information about Malaysian links with the University: NuMed Malaysia

Football legend Charlie Crowe and his family have described the effects of Alzheimer’s as they launch a £1.5 million appeal to fund a new scanner to help speed research into the condition at Newcastle University.

As the last remaining member of the 1950’s triple FA Cup winning Newcastle United team, Charlie Crowe is rightly a hero on Tyneside.

Until last year he was speaking at meetings and active as a staunch supporter of NUFC. Diagnosed 10 years ago, Alzheimer’s disease has now taken its toll and his life has changed profoundly. He now wants to support research into his condition to help find a cure by funding a new scanner.
 
This appeal is Charlie’s last big game. Despite having this devastating disease, he has not given up.

The Charlie Crowe Scanner Appeal is a fitting last chapter to his life and fulfils his motto, "Try your best, never give up".

His daughter, Lesley Edmondson says, “My father has been described as a 'local hero', but for him the real' heroes' were the people of the North East, rising above hard times, keeping going.

“If he is a 'hero' in any sense of the word, it is in his battle with Alzheimer's. That makes him a 'hero' in my eyes.

“His greatest wish is to be able to raise money for this scanner, which will provide research to help other sufferers with Alzheimer's, Dementia and other diseases.”

Urgent medical research is being held back by lack of scanner time. The new scanner will allow researchers at the Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle University to press ahead with world-leading advances in Alzheimer’s as well as in diabetes, Parkinson’s and other chronic diseases.

The invention of techniques by the Magnetic Resonance physics team has allowed researchers to work on projects in several disease areas. Currently, the requirement for magnet time of these clinical studies is preventing them from moving forwards on other important work and preventing further physics developmental work. At the same time, an important advance in magnet design means that they need to move forwards to take advantage of this development.

“The research can make a huge difference to the lives of many people”, says Professor Roy Taylor of the Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre.

Further information can be found at charliecroweappeal.com or a donation can be made via the 'Just Giving' website.

Coverage of the appeal as featured on the BBC's Inside Out and the Chronicle and Journal.

Viisitors get a chance to find out what goes on in a clinical trial as research facilities open their doors for a day.

What can you expect if you take part in a clinical trial?

This will be just one of the questions staff from Newcastle University expect to be asked when two of the clinical research facilities open their doors to the public on Friday 13 March.

As part of Healthcare Science Awareness week, two of the Newcastle Biomedicine Clinical Research Platforms - the Clinical Research Facility based in the RVI and the Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU) in the Campus for Ageing and Vitality at the Newcastle General Hospital site - will be inviting people to look round the facilities and find out more about what goes on.

There will be a tour of the Clinical Research Facilities starting at 2pm (no need to book).

Paddy Stevenson, the Operations Manager of the Newcastle Biomedicine Clinical Research Platforms says, “Without the fantastic help of the patients and people who come and take part in our studies we wouldn’t be able to make the progress that we do.

“This is a chance for people to find out more about why clinical research and clinical trials are so important and a bit more about the internationally-recognised work we do.”

CARU director Professor David Burn says, “It’s going to be interesting to find out what people want to know more about – and to show them round the state-of-the-art facilities that we have here.

“Many people are fascinated by our gait lab which can analyse exactly how you walk and where you’re putting your weight which helps us understand why some people are more prone to falling. With the patients and people from across the North East who come and help us, we are building up new knowledge which is going to help us keep healthier as we grow older.”

• Friday 13 March, 2pm: Clinical Research Facility - tour and meet the staff, based in the RVI, where clinical trials are undertaken on behalf of pharmaceutical companies and individual research clinicians. www.ncl.ac.uk/crp/facilities/ncrf/index.htm
  
  How to get there: www.ncl.ac.uk/crp/about/findus.htm

• Friday 13 March, 2pm: Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU) - tour and meet the staff at Newcastle University’s Campus for Ageing and Vitality on the Newcastle General Hospital site. www.ncl.ac.uk/crp/facilities/caru/index.htm

If you can’t make the tours but you are interested in taking part in clinical trials please log on to: www.ncl.ac.uk/crc/volunteer/registration1.php

Scientists from Newcastle University singled out as some of the best in the country.

Two teams from Newcastle University have been singled out to take part in a national event showcasing some of the most cutting-edge research going on in Britain today.

The MESSAGE team – which includes experts from Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (EECE), Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) and Computing Science – and the Climate Change Impact Research team, also based in CEG, are featuring today at the Pioneers ’09 Event in London.

Organised by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, they are two of just 23 teams from across the UK picked out for their pioneering work.

Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems Phil Blythe said: “Out of the 23 projects selected for the exhibition two are from Newcastle University.

"This is a fantastic achievement and reiterates the quality and societal relevance of the research we are undertaking."

Using a Weather Generator, the Climate Change team will demonstrate how our climate may change over the next century, producing valuable insights into how buildings, infrastructure and utilities – and those responsible for them - will need to respond.

Dr Claire Walsh explains: "It is absolutely critical that we plan and equip ourselves for the future right now. We need to develop strategies and make changes that will enable us to adapt to the impacts which will increasingly be felt over the next five to ten years."

The MESSAGE project – which stands for Mobile Environmental Sensing Systems Across Grid Environments – is developing wireless sensors that can be fitted to vehicles, infrastructure and mobile phones to produce real-time, second-by-second, metre-by-metre data on traffic pollution.

The team will show how the sensors can be integrated together and the data consolidated into a constantly updated, interactive ‘pollution map’.

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In other transport news, leaders from across the North East were at the university last week to find out more about our expertise in road, rail and shipping.

Organised by the university’s Transport team, Professor Phil Blythe said the aim was to highlight the work going on at Newcastle and find new ways in which it could be used to improve transport networks of the future across the region.

Fiona Gough, Deputy Regional Director for the Environment, Government Office North East, said: "This event has given us a real flavour of what is going on at the University. What we need to do now is take that information away and make use of it to improve our region’s transport networks."

David Marshall, Transport Manager for the North East Assembly, added: "We have a world-class transport research centre here at the university and we need to take advantage of that. This is a first step."

A thrilling day of sporting action saw newly re-branded Team Newcastle come out on top of the Calvert Cup clash with a 61 points to 51 victory over rivals Northumbria University. Throughout the day, points were hotly contested in 21 different sports, ranging from American football to mountain biking to table tennis.

By the time the Rugby Union first teams took to the field for their showpiece match in front of a sell-out crowd of 3,000 supporters at Gateshead Stadium, Team Newcastle had already done enough to win the overall competition for the second year running.

An impressive display by the swimming team stood out as an important victory, along with wins by the skiers and women’s hockey first team. Unexpected victories for the netball fourth team and the women’s tennis team also proved vital towards turning the tide in Newcastle’s favour.

There were also some nail-biting finishes throughout the day that summed up the drama that the Stan Calvert Cup has to offer.

With just 10 minutes to go, the men’s hockey first team came from three-nil down to clinch an almost unbelievable 4-3 victory. Meanwhile, the rugby league first team summed-up the revitalised spirit of Team Newcastle with a magnificent second half display that took them from a four point deficit at half time, when they trailed Northumbria by 10 points to 14, to a 34-20 victory at the final whistle.

In the final contest of the day, Team Newcastle men’s rugby union first team were outclassed by their Northumbria rivals, who scored a resounding 36 points to eight victory. Despite that defeat, however, Stan Calvert day was about a celebration of excellence across a whole range of sports that were ultimately dominated by Newcastle University.

Performance sport manager, Fraser Kennedy, said: “The level of commitment and team spirit among Team Newcastle’s athletes during the Stan Calvert competition has been absolutely outstanding, and it has been rewarded with a worthy victory in this increasingly hard-fought contest”.

Professor Charles Harvey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for sport, congratulated Team Newcastle, saying: “What a fantastic achievement for our sportsmen and women. We cannot over-estimate the importance of a strong reputation for sport when it comes to our desire to recruit high-calibre students, and our victory in the Calvert Cup serves to reinforce Newcastle University’s fast-growing reputation for sporting excellence.”

This article is based on a report by Sports Journalism Scholar, Dan Cottam. Read the full report.

Photo credit: Alexander Wilson.

In other sporting news, Newcastle University sportsmen and women are capitalising on the University’s growing reputation for sporting excellence with the launch of a new-look ‘Team Newcastle’ logo.

Team Newcastle’s simple but effective design, which incorporates the University’s official crest, aims to create a professional image across all of our sports teams, helping to consolidate Newcastle’s position and reputation among the best of the country’s sporting institutions.

The new image had its first outing at Gateshead Stadium for the climax of the Calvert Cup clash against Northumbria University, but Fraser Kennedy hopes the launch of the new brand will encourage all the University’s sports clubs to support each other throughout the BUCS (British Universities and Colleges) season. “We need all the clubs to engage in this because it is a way of uniting everyone and pushing us on to the next level. It’s another important part of being professional", he said.

This year marks both the bicentennial anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, one of the most influential books ever written.

The Robinson Library, in collaboration with the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution (CBE), has put together a display on the life and work of Charles Darwin to mark this special anniversary.

The book displays on Levels 2 and 4 of the Robinson Library showcase scans from the Library’s rare first edition of ‘On the Origin of Species’ and contain other examples of his writing on a variety of themes from barnacles to humans. The changing exhibition will also provide a background to his life and times, and reflect the powerful influence of his idea of evolution by natural selection on modern biology. The exhibition will run until May.

The first edition of “Origin” and many other equally rare materials can be consulted on request in the Special Collections Reading Room. Further details details may be found on the Library website or by contacting Moira.Bent@ncl.ac.uk or Julia.Finney@ncl.ac.uk.

This is just one of the many Darwin 2009 events being run by the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution. There will be a series of events, including a student Darwin Quiz, the Darwin’s Origins 150 Reading Group (run with the Robinson Library and the Literary and Philosophical Society), and a Darwin Day for Schools.

To find out more about the centre’s research and other events for Darwin 2009, visit the Centre's website or email cbe@ncl.ac.uk

Caption: Julia Finney, University Library and Dr Candy Rowe, Institute of Neuroscience with the rare first edition of Darwin's book.

The city and region can be proud of Newcastle University, which is literally opening its doors to society, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink (pictured), told an audience of business, professional and other interested people in Newcastle.

The University has recently held successful open days for businesses and for students, and later this year will gain a ‘front door’ facing the city centre, with the completion of the new Student and Administrative Services Building at Barras Bridge, he said.

These are examples of how the University is opening its doors - rediscovering its civic roots and integrating with society, said Professor Brink, who was taking part in one of the regular ‘In Conversation With …’ events organised by The Bridge Club, which supports early stage growth businesses by bridging the gap between stakeholders and the enterprise community.

Professor Brink pointed out that the University grew out of the need for ‘intellectual underpinning’ of society in the early 19th century, so that its functions were integrated with industry, medicine, agriculture and other activities.

The second half of the 20th century saw higher education pursue intellectual objectives that were less relevant to local people but some universities, including Newcastle, were now changing this.

‘The idea of a civic university is a university that is well integrated into civil society,’ said Professor Brink.

‘The wealth of society … is not going to be generated from what you grow on the land or what you dig from under the ground or what you manufacture,’ he said, ‘if the knowledge economy means anything, then it means that the wealth resides in ideas and what people think.’

Speaking at The Exchange building in Gallowgate, Newcastle, on Tuesday 17 February, Professor Brink went on to explain the benefits of research in areas such as ageing and stem cells, whilst also stressing the importance to society of widening participation.

The Bridge Club made an audio recording of his 46 minute interview, which can be downloaded from the University website.

Bridge Club Ltd is a private company that was established in 2000 by Caroline Theobald to support early stage growth businesses. It was designed to bridge the gap between all the stakeholders of the enterprise community:  entrepreneurs, finance, professional services, public sector support and established businesses.

The University’s Careers Service is advising students not to panic as the number of graduate vacancies in the UK drops this year for the first time since 2003, according to new figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

The latest edition of the AGR survey into the graduate jobs market showed overall vacancies are expected to decrease by 5.4%, with most employers blaming the economic downturn for the cuts.

Nick Keeley, Director of Newcastle University Careers Service, suggested these figures could give a slightly misleading picture, as those companies surveyed are mainly large-scale multi-nationals, which tend to account for no more than about 20 per cent of graduate jobs.

“Although it is clearly a difficult time for job seekers, the graduate employers we speak to regularly seem to be more or less maintaining their graduate recruitment targets,” he said. “Many produce goods or services that people need - recession or no recession – and others say they are continuing to recruit graduates, even though there is a general freeze on other levels of recruitment, as they will need them to fill the shoes of middle and senior managers in years to come.

“Whatever career path our graduates choose, they will need to be increasingly prepared to put in the extra effort - from having a really professional CV to gaining relevant work experience – in order to stand out in an increasingly competitive job market.

“A large percentage of our graduates are very keen to stay in the North East and we are doing our best to support them in finding employment or starting their own business."

As a result of increasing interest in the region, the Careers Service has extended the Newcastle Work Experience programme, which places students in local and regional businesses, giving both a chance to get to know each other before making the commitment of entering a full employment contract.

A new body set up to regulate and manage the seas around England is to be launched on Tyneside.

The new Marine Management Organisation will draw on the expertise of Newcastle University to look at the sustainability and regulation of our marine environment.

Creating an estimated 140 jobs in the region, Marine and Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said Tyneside was ideally placed to host the groundbreaking new MMO with its “right mix of environmental, business and academic marine interests.”

Professor Richard Birmingham, Head of the School of Marine Science and Technology, said the new headquarters would further strengthen the region’s reputation for marine science.

“This is really exciting news both for the region and the university and we are proud to be involved,” said Professor Birmingham.

“Fishing and ship-building are an important part of this region’s heritage and the research done here at Newcastle University reflects that.

“We are the largest marine school in Europe and a world leader in marine science and technology. We have expertise in fisheries and coastal management and the new MMO will provide a further boost in terms of infrastructure, expertise and job opportunities for our graduates.”

The MMO’s responsibilities will include:

• a new marine planning system
  
• a new integrated marine licensing system
  
• enforcement of sea fisheries, nature conservation and licensing, using powers under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill
  

Huw Irranca-Davies said Tyneside had been chosen for its broad range and good balance of marine interests.

“The new organisation’s location is integral to its ability to be highly respected by everyone who uses and values our seas, and in Tyneside the MMO will be close to people and organisations who care passionately about marine protection and how we use our seas.

“All of the shortlisted locations made professional, well-presented bids and I thank everyone involved for their efforts and enthusiasm.”

The MMO will be a Non-Departmental Public Body, replacing the Marine and Fisheries Agency and will take on the new marine planning function and some responsibilities from other government departments and agencies, bringing together marine functions in one independent body for the first time.

The MMO applies to the waters around England and also UK offshore waters for non-devolved and reserved matters. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have separate arrangements.

• bags
• cling film (remove food debris)
• yoghurt pots (please rinse)
• cups
• tubs
• sandwich wrappers (remove food debris)
• magazine/journal wrappers
• trays
• any rigid or soft plastic packaging (remove any card)

The University’s Moorbank Botanic Garden was the setting for a training workshop with a difference recently when participants were encouraged to dig deep to find out more about soil and earthworms.

Community group leaders from local organisations including Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Groundwork STAN (South Tyneside and Newcastle) and Scotswood Community Garden were invited along as part of the Open Air Laboratories Network (OPAL) project, a nationwide initiative funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

OPAL aims to encourage people to explore, study, enjoy and protect their local environment and Newcastle University is the lead partner for the North East.

A series of surveys are taking place, which can be carried out by people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. The first survey, Soil and Earthworms, launches next month and will involve making observations to build up a picture of soil characteristics and earthworm populations across England.

Participants will be carrying out some basic tests on the soil as well as identifying earthworms and entering their data onto the website www.OPALexplorenature.org

Surprisingly little is known about earthworms and the soils they live in, so by getting involved participants can help contribute towards important research that will map soils and earthworms all over England.

At last month’s Moorbank event, David Jones, an entomologist from Imperial College London, gave a talk on the importance of soil and earthworms, and how to conduct the survey.

‘It’s easy to take part and the survey is open to all ages, abilities and backgrounds,’ said Katy Barnard, Education Officer for the North East OPAL. ‘You don't need to go far - back gardens, school playing fields and local parks are just a few suggestions of places to explore.’

If you would like to take part in the survey yourself, or are interested in getting family and friends or your local community group involved then contact Katy for more details or to request a free survey pack.

Article submitted by: Katy Barnard, Education Officer for OPAL 0191 246 4807 or Katy.barnard@ncl.ac.uk

Caption: Aporrectodea caliginosa (Grey worm) courtesy of the Natural History Museum.

The University's annual review and profile, Ahead 2009, has been published on the website and can be downloaded as a PDF file.

Ahead 2009 provides both a summary of the University's achievements over the past year and an introduction to the University.

Hard copies are distributed to job applicants, friends of the University and a wide variety of people who have influence in the higher education sector. Many more copies will be distributed throughout the year by managers and staff at events, during their travels and to key contacts.

A small supply of copies has been sent to each School and Institute. Staff or external readers of NewsLink requiring further copies should contact Kath Wade at kath.wade@ncl.ac.uk or 0191 222 7850.

Ahead 2009 is published by the Press and Communications team in conjunction with the Marketing & Publicity unit. Head of Press and Communications, Mick Warwicker, said: 'The themes running through Ahead 2009 are internationalisation and the benefits of our activities to society.

‘In addition to providing hard copies for promotional purposes, we have placed Ahead 2009 on the University website so that it can be downloaded. Staff can send their contacts the web address, or download it as a PDF file and send it as an e-mail attachment, if they wish.'

The National Student Survey (NSS), which records the views of final year undergraduate students, is being launched next Monday, 9 February.

It is vital we achieve a good response rate as NSS results are now published on the Unistats web pages with a direct link to the UCAS web page www.unistats.com and are increasingly likely to influence the decisions of prospective students; they also form the basis of wider league tables.

Please encourage all your final year students to fill in this survey at www.thestudentsurvey.com where they will need to use their student number to log in. There is also be a prize draw with five Newcastle students winning £75 each, as long as they complete the survey online and before the Easter break.

If you want more information about the National Student Survey, please go to www.thestudentsurvey.com/faqs.asp#q1.

1. Make it easier for people in the region to work productively with the University as suppliers or clients; beginning with an open access event at the University’s King’s Road Centre from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm on Friday 30th January (this will include more detailed information on the other nine initiatives).
   
   
2. Secure hundreds of construction jobs by maintaining the University’s current £200m programme of investment in its campus, which is currently mid-way through completion.
   
   
3. Bring forward other significant capital projects, including refurbishing lecture theatres and laboratories.
   
   
4. Accelerate the programming of maintenance and improvement works on our outdoor estate.
   
   
5. Invest in improvements to the energy efficiency of the University’s residential properties, requiring installation of insulation and other measures.
   
   
6. A business voucher scheme for small and medium-sized companies in the region, where vouchers up to £5k in value will be given to businesses, which can be redeemed against training or specialist advice from the University.
   
   
7. Arrange subsidised access to courses to help re-skill people who have been made redundant, and expand the University’s curriculum provision to better meet the training and development needs of employees in regional companies.
   
   
8. Reduce average payment times to all suppliers by nine days.
   
   
9. Expansion of the University Career Service’s successful Newcastle Work Experience scheme, which gives small businesses low-cost access to skilled and enthusiastic students to undertake specific pieces of work.
   
   
10. Expand our provision of free cultural and educational activities for the benefit of families on a tight budget.

The University is ranked 16th in the Times Higher Education’s annual league table of student experience, published on Thursday, 15 January.

Loughborough tops the table, followed by Oxford and Cambridge. Newcastle has risen nine places since the last survey, in 2007, to become the highest-placed institution in North East England.

The survey is based on a questionnaire asking students about various aspects of university life, including the quality of their lectures, attitude of staff, facilities and social life.

In total, over 12,000 full-time undergraduates took part in this year’s polling, which ran from October 2007 to May 2008.

A feature article, mentioning Newcastle University, has been published on a THE web page. The league table can be viewed by scrolling down the THE web page to 'related files' near the bottom of the right-hand column.

Alumnus Richard Aumonier has been commissioned to create a fitting sculpture for the new Barras Bridge entrance to campus, following a competition and comment from University staff and students.

His proposal was the clear favourite at both the presentations and the interview panel, where it enjoyed unanimous support.

It was generally regarded as having the greatest artistic merit and the most considered and original design, creating an approachable, warm and intelligent introduction to the University campus.

The audience also responded to its tactile quality and many commented on the way it invites 'interaction'.

His initial proposal, which received the most votes and comments from visitors to the Hatton Gallery exhibition last April, was for a series of low granite sculptures. Unfortunately, it is not possible to take the full proposal forward due to cost implications, but it is hoped that the revised sculpture still retains the original concept which won staff and student approval.

Mr Aumonier has proposed a sculpture representing an abstracted human head. Standing 1.6m high, it will be carved from bonded granite slabs once located all over the world and now reclaimed from stone yards around Britain. The work proposes the human head as the ‘receptacle for knowledge’. It has been designed to respond to the nature of the site, acknowledging the surrounding buildings and sculpture and emphasising themes of knowledge and internationalisation.

Having studied at Newcastle University and graduating in 1990, Mr Aumonier then went on to complete his postgraduate study at the Royal College of Art. Since then he has undertaken a number of commissions and shown his work throughout Britain.

He will create this sculpture in his studio in London during 2009 and it will be installed early in 2010.

The competition was organised by CRAFT (Campus Realm Art Focus Team), which was set up in 2007 to promote public art on campus and is participating in the current ‘Our campus … your environment’ project. It was funded and supported by the Arts Council, who, together with representatives from the city council, participated in the commissioning process.

Article submitted by Andrew Burton, School of Arts and Cultures, andrew.burton@ncl.ac.uk

An enterprise educator network has been established to offer more support to educators at Newcastle University who are looking to help one another and gain better access to materials, information and best-practice to embed enterprise into their curriculum.

Alongside this network the E-hub (an abbreviation for ‘Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Educator Social Networking Space’) has been developed to give Newcastle University’s educators the opportunity to:

* gain an insight into the latest thinking in terms of enterprise education
* access up-to-date resources and reports, both local and national
* debate techniques and share ideas about embedding enterprise into the curriculum
* find out about events to attend and also encourage students to come along to
* facilitate entrepreneurial learning opportunities
* find colleagues who to collaborate with
* access online tools to better support students outside the lecture theatre

Educators at Newcastle University who are engaged, interested or curious about developing the enterprise skills of their students and providing entrepreneurial opportunities in modules and programmes are asked to contact Katie Wray.

Article submitted by: Katie Wray, 0191 222 5183, katie.wray@ncl.ac.uk

The latest exhibit to arrive in the soon-to-be-opened Great North Museum: Hancock caused quite a stir when it arrived in Newcastle.

Traffic ground to a halt and passers-by were left dumbstruck as a life-size cast of an African elephant made its way through the city on the back of a lorry.

The elephant, which began its journey in Belgium, is three metres high, 3.6 metres long and 1.7 metres wide - so big that it had to be lifted through a huge purpose-built door on the first floor of the museum by a specially hired crane.

The model, which was taken from a cast of an actual stuffed elephant at the Bonn Museum in Germany, will form part of the Living Planet Gallery.

An opportunity to be part of the Great North Museum: Hancock

‘Be Part of It’ is a campaign to encourage people to show their support for the new Great North Museum: Hancock which opens in late Spring 2009.

The campaign is offering people an opportunity to make donations towards the support of inspirational learning and community programmes, which will enable 30,000 school children and their families to learn from a diverse programme of activities and resources in the new museum every year.

In return, donors will have their name permanently listed on the wall of the museum. One of the first people whose name will appear on the wall is Olympic gold medal-winner, Jonathan Edwards, who is patron of the campaign.

Jonathan said: ‘’The Great North Museum: Hancock reflects everything that is great about our region. The building and the history of the collections are firmly rooted in the culture of the north east, and the museum has something for everyone.”

To find out more, contact Kevin Taylor on (0191) 277 2173 or e-mail bepartofit@twmuseums.org.uk

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/greatnorthmuseum/bepartofit contact

About the Great North Museum

The Great North Museum is a partnership between Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Great North Museum has been made possible by generous funding from a wide range of supporters including the Heritage Lottery Fund, TyneWear Partnership, One NorthEast, the European Regional Development Fund, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, The Northern Rock Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Clore Duffield Foundation and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund.

The £26 million Great North Museum: Hancock is set to be a world-class visitor attraction taking visitors on an exciting journey through the story of our planet and its people; celebrating 500 million years of evolution.

Among the highlights of the new museum will be a large-scale, interactive model of Hadrian's Wall, major new displays showing the wonder and diversity of the animal and plant kingdoms, spectacular objects from the Ancient Greeks and mummies from Ancient Egypt, a planetarium and a life-size T-Rex dinosaur skeleton.

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/greatnorthmuseum/

Two leading Newcastle University academics have been recognised in this year’s New Year’s Honours list.

Professor Tom Kirkwood

Professor Tom Kirkwood, Institute of Ageing and Health, was awarded a CBE for services to medical science.

He has been researching the ageing process since the 1970s – a time when ageing was thought to be much too complicated for “serious” scientific study. He soon realised that the reason we age was probably to do with how organisms allocate their precious energy resources to processes like growth, reproduction and maintenance.

His key insight led to the ‘disposable soma’ theory, which suggests that, under pressure of natural selection, it does not pay to invest in a body that might last forever as ageing results from the gradual, life long accumulation of molecular damage in our cells and tissues. However, the good news is that these processes are malleable, for example, through better nutrition and lifestyle.

“The Institute for Ageing and Health is one of the very best centres in the world for research on ageing and I am absolutely thrilled for the recognition it gives to our work collectively as well as of my own contribution,” said Professor Kirkwood.

The Institute has been spearheading attempts to ensure that, as people live ever longer and longer, these extra years of life are as high quality as possible.

In 2001, Professor Kirkwood gave the BBC Reith Lectures on “The End of Age” which brought these issues to wider notice. He has also acted as specialist advisor to a House of Lords report on “Ageing: Scientific Aspects” and played a leading role in a recent Foresight project on “Mental Capital Through Life” on behalf of the Government Office for Science.

Professor Mark Shucksmith

Mark Shucksmith, Professor of Planning in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, has been awarded an OBE for services to rural development and crofting.

Professor Shucksmith is one of the world’s foremost rural sociologists, well known for his research on social exclusion in rural areas, rural housing and rural development.

He said: “I am delighted to receive this recognition for not only my work but also for all my colleagues on the Crofting Inquiry and at the Commission of Rural Communities. It is also a reflection of Newcastle University’s international reputation for research and its work with urban and rural communities to help them shape their future, including advising governments on policies to support this aim.”

In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Shucksmith is currently a Commissioner of the Commission for Rural Communities, responsible for advising the Government on rural policy. He also chaired the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting for the Scottish Government, whose findings are due to become new legislation this year.

He was Vice-President of the International Rural Sociological Association from 2004-08 and organised the World Rural Sociology Congress in Norway in 2004. His latest book “Comparing Rural Development” is being published this week.

British honours are awarded on merit, for exceptional achievement or service. Anybody can recommend a British national for an honour, which consist of life peerages, knighthoods, appointments to the Order of the British Empire and gallantry awards. Nominees are assessed by committees and formally approved by the Queen.

Newcastle University is participating in a global project to help elevate literacy and education around the world.

The University has become a member of the Talloires Network, an international collective of individuals and institutions committed to promoting higher education’s civic and social responsibilities.

‘Literacy is at the heart of higher education and being part of this network reminds us all of our responsibilities to the communities around us as well as globally,’ said Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement. ‘This is an excellent opportunity for the university to highlight the work we are undertaking in this area.’

As part of the network, members are invited to undertake specific literacy development work and the University has highlighted three key Global Projects:

Literacy Clinic

Working closely with six to 16-year-olds and their parents, the Literacy Clinic uses a holistic, multi-sensory approach to teaching that builds upon each child's existing strengths and abilities, rather than focusing on their weaknesses. 

It operates from Speech and Language Sciences in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.

Over 50 children have attended a 12-week session since it was set up in January 2004 to provide a service for children with literacy difficulties such as dyslexia.

www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/outreach/literacy-clinic

Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition by Adults (LESLLA)

LESLLA was established in 2004 as an international forum to discuss proficiency in spoken and written English by adults who are not literate in their first language.

Many traditional programmes assume students will have literacy skills in their first language and are therefore familiar with the basics of spelling, grammar and syntax.

Where this is not the case, literacy must be taught from scratch at the same time as teaching a new language, which is a tall order for both students and their teachers.

LESLLA was founded by a consortium of European and North American researchers, including Dr Martha Young-Scholten, who is based in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics.

www.leslla.org

Literacy and Creative Writing at the Northern Writers’ Centre (NWC)

The Northern Writers’ Centre is a dynamic partnership between the School of English at Newcastle University and New Writing North, the regional literature development agency.

This project adapts the way creative writing is taught to adults in workshops for use in schools, and by increasing teachers’ skills, knowledge and confidence, this will hopefully impact on children’s attainment levels in writing.

Members of the group include creative writing staff from the University, Professor Bill Herbert, Professor Jackie Kay and Dr Laura Fish - all well known authors – along with literacy consultants and culture and creativity advisers from Newcastle City Council’s Education Department.

www.northernwriterscentre.com

For more information about the Talloires Network, visit: www.tufts.edu/talloiresnetwork

The University has reaffirmed its position as one of the UK's top 20 research institutions, with the publication of the UK’s official survey of research quality, the Research Assessment Exercise 2008.

Newcastle is ranked 17th out of 162 universities and colleges in the UK, in a league table of research power, compiled by the influential Research Fortnight magazine, which has independently analysed the survey data.  However, while this table may be regarded as the definitive version by many resaarch professionals, a number of other tables, ranking institutions in different orders, have also been published.

The RAE 2008 identified research that is world-leading or internationally excellent in all 38 Units of Assessment (UoAs), or subject areas, at the University, spanning medicine, the sciences and the arts.

RAE 2008 is the first survey of its kind for seven years and has been conducted by the four higher education funding councils for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

All universities and higher education colleges in the UK are subject to the survey, and the results will be used to decide how much research funding they get in their annual grants from the Government, from 2009 onwards.

In more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of UoAs at Newcastle University, at least half of all research was placed in the top two categories of 4* (world leading) or 3* (internationally excellent).

The results highlight the leading role of medical research and the outstanding achievements and quality of stem cell and cancer research. The University’s position and high standing in engineering is affirmed by its performance in civil engineering, where it ranks second in the UK in terms of research power. In the humanities, Newcastle University is ranked in the top five for fine art, with Town and Country planning also highly placed.

The Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, Professor Chris Brink, said: ‘I would like to thank all staff for their efforts and to congratulate those who have done well.

‘I am pleased to see that an independent and authoritative source, such as Research Fortnight, has again placed Newcastle University firmly in the top 20 in the UK for its research power.’

Margaret Fay, Chairman of the regional development agency, One NorthEast, said: ‘The results achieved by Newcastle University reflect the quality of its internationally-renowned research activity and academia. This success is a wider success for the North East and the University is rightly proud of the results it has achieved in this important study.’

Newcastle University will be closed from Wednesday 24th December until Monday 5th January.

Newslink wishes all staff, students and friends of the University a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!

The University’s external homepage has been given a makeover by the Corporate Web Development team.

As part of these changes, the Press Office has been given a new online look, along with an improved service for publishing latest news on the homepage. Staff and the media can also sign up for regular email updates about items of interest to them.

‘It’s not just cosmetic changes,’ explained Gareth Evans, senior web manager. ‘There has been a lot of work carried out in the background to make it easier for staff to publish and share content with the Press Office.

‘With more and more people getting their information from the Internet, it’s vital the University has a professional-looking website that is easy for visitors to navigate.’

Newslink’s pages have also been given a fresh look, for the first time since it was set up five years ago. This is part of an ongoing project to develop the staff e-magazine and we will be asking for your opinions about Newslink in the New Year.

Staff who set up RSS feeds in the past (which allow you to automatically receive emails when new content is added) are advised to redo them now to ensure they continue to receive regular updates. To set up your RSS feeds, visit: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/mailing_list

The improvements to the University’s homepage include an eye-catching area to highlight the University’s key messages; a standardised way of promoting top news stories; updated design; and expanded page width to enable better navigation.

The Corporate Web Development team worked closely with ISS to ensure that the transition of the new homepage worked with the current systems.

This latest development follows the launch of the Medical Toxicology Centre website earlier this month, along with the new Writing Development Centre and Accommodation websites last month.

New Languages website to help younger students

The Newcastle University strand of Routes into Languages North East has launched its web-based learning platform, Universed. The site has been developed for pupils and teachers in schools to supplement their learning with content that is produced by pupils from the region. All content, which spans teen-focused content and links to existing mainstream web-educational sites, is checked before publication.
Universed is a cross-platform initiative with on-line social networking designed to attract young learners and encourage habitual use.

Staff are being challenged to use as little energy as possible during the holiday period.

Following the launch of the energy awareness campaign ‘Save it’ earlier this year, the Estates Support Service’s Sustainability Team is urging all staff to switch off this Christmas.

‘If we can achieve the lowest energy consumption in the last five years for the holiday period, this will save the University around £23,000, along with around 94 tonnes of carbon dioxide,’ said Matt Dunlop, energy manager. ‘The heating will be switched off centrally during the break, but there are vast amounts of electrical equipment that could be left on unnecessarily, ranging from lights to vending machines and PCs.’

The Sustainability Team has produced ‘12 tips at Christmas’ to help towards this aim. More information can be found at www.ncl.ac.uk/saveit

Starting now...

1. Talk to your Environmental Co-ordinator* and colleagues to agree responsibilities for switching off shared kitchen and office equipment, including photocopiers, printers, scanners, fax machines, fridges, vending machines, hot water boilers etc.
   
   
2. Survey labs to identify which equipment can be switched off during the Christmas break. Remember some equipment may affect other labs (e.g. fume cupboards on linked ductwork). Fume cupboards not in use can waste large amounts of warm air which costs money, wastes fuel and will make your labs cold for your return. If you need advice on what can be left in cupboards that are shut down contact the University Safety Office
   
   Before you leave....
   
   
3. Shut down your PC and turn your monitor off standby
   
   
4. Ensure all windows and doors are closed
   
   
5. Switch off all shared office and lab equipment
   
   
6. Switch off all unnecessary lights (only switch off exit route lights if you are sure you are the last to leave)
   
   
7. Switch off vending machines - ideally hot drinks machines should be emptied of water before the break and then re-filled before being switched on again after Christmas
   
   
8. Defrost the fridge in your kitchen area and leave it turned off over the break. If you defrost it just before you go it will not cause a flood but it may be worth leaving newspaper down just in case. You can download a poster at www.ncl.ac.uk/saveit to notify colleagues it has been turned off
   
   
9. Switch off your Zip hot water boiler. Print a poster from www.ncl.ac.uk/saveit and attach to the boiler so the first person back in after Christmas knows to run off the water before drinking
   
   
10. Turn off your office Christmas tree lights
    
    During the break...
    
    
11. Wind down over the holiday period – try not to come into work
    
    
12. Make energy saving your New Year’s resolution.
    

A £20m centre that will train the scientists of the future in a bid to plug the gap in the UK’s drug development industry is being launched at Newcastle University.

Newcastle University has won a £6m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to train 60 specialist PhD students over the next eight years.

Together with money from industry and the university, the new Centre for Biopharmaceutical Process Development will be dedicated to fine-tuning drug development - getting new drugs to the patient safely, more quickly and more efficiently.

Led by Professors Elaine Martin and Gary Montague, the new centre will bring together expertise from across the University as well as some of the leading pharmaceutical industries both in the North East and across the UK.

Professor Martin said: ‘Our aim is to make the North East the UK leader in bio-processing – attracting the best students to work alongside local industries to create a bio-processing hub to rival the best in the world.

‘The new centre will focus on taking a drug from the point of discovery through the long and complex process that is required to make it available to patients. We’ll be looking at ways to speed up this process, reducing the time between a new drug being found and patients actually being prescribed it.’

The new EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training were announced today by the Minister of State for Science and Innovation, Lord Drayson.

Seventeen of the new centres – Newcastle being one of them - will be industrial training centres that will equip their students with the business skills they need to turn pioneering ideas into products and services, boosting their impact on the UK’s economy.

Newcastle University is also involved in a second centre being set up to find new ways of managing the world’s most precious resource – water.

Led in the North East by Professor Tom Curtis, the centre will bring together some of the country’s leading researchers, water bodies and other industrial partners to put water sustainability into action.

Newcastle University Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Brink said: ‘This is another step on the road towards Newcastle as a city of science. I am pleased that the University is able to make this contribution, and would like to congratulate our scientists on winning this prestigious award.’

Peter Arnold, chief executive of Newcastle Science City, added: ‘Newcastle as a Science City has a strong foundation in bio-processing with world class research and close connections to the pharmaceutical industries, including collaborations with companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Avecia.

‘This funding is wonderful news and will help ensure this region is at the forefront of both skills development and the sciences.’

Science City is currently working with Regional Development Agency One NorthEast to seek European funding that will build on this successful investment.

Margaret Fay, Chairman of One NorthEast, said: ‘This announcement is excellent news, not just for the university but for the region as a whole.

‘We're establishing the North East as a leading location for science and innovation and the creation of this £20m facility, which will enable us to help plug the gap in the UK's bio-processing industry, is a great endorsement of everything we are trying to achieve.’

News in brief

Celebrating diversity

A celebration of the diversity of the University, its staff and students will be taking place early next year.

Staff organising the University’s first Diversity Week - 'Newcastle Diversity: Exploring difference to enrich learning in research, teaching, engagement, work and life' - want to hear from people happy to talk about diversity in relation to their research work.

For more information, visit Diversity Week

All that jazz

A Newcastle University orchestra was the main attraction at a recent charity event to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

The University’s Jazz Orchestra entertained nearly 200 guests at a charity ball, aptly named ‘Dog’s Dinner’.

The evening’s fundraising efforts generated a total of just under £4,700 for the charity, which provides support for blind and partially-sighted people.

The ball was the idea of Richard Boggie, reward manager in human resources, who has benefited from guide dogs in the past. He is hoping to raise enough funds to sponsor and name a new guide dog puppy, which he is planning to call ‘Jazz’.

Article submitted by and further information from: Richard Boggie, Reward Manager, Human Resources. Contact: richard.boggie@ncl.ac.uk

Special birthday event for Portuguese director

A special celebration is taking place at the Tyneside cinema next week to mark the 100th birthday of a famous European filmmaker.

The event is jointly organised by the Camoes Institute in Portugal and the University’s film and media research group, based in the School of Modern Languages.

Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s most recent film I’m Going Home (2002) will be screened on the night. The film will be introduced by Leonor Baldaque, one of his favourite actresses and a star in the film alongside Michel Piccoli and Catherine Deneuve.

I’m Going Home will be shown at 6pm on Thursday 11 December. Tickets are available from the Tyneside Cinema box office.

Schools react to chemcial challenge

The school of chemistry played host to the regional heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) Annual Schools' Chemistry Quiz.

Twenty one teams from schools across the region took part in the event, which included a tour of the new chemistry labs.

A closely fought contest saw Newcastle's Royal Grammar School emerge as overall victors. They will now go forward to represent the Newcastle and North East Coast section at the national competition to be held at the Science Museum in London next year.

Culture Lab is set to host the Journal newspaper’s first Culture webchat this week.

The event, being held in conjunction with New Writing North, coincides with a talk tomorrow evening (Thursday) by crime writer Val McDermid.

The ITV television series Wire in the Blood, which regularly uses the University’s campus for filming, is based on McDermid’s books.

This will be the first time a literary event has linked up with the Journal’s website.

There will be a ‘live blog’ on the night at www.journallive.co.uk

McDermid will be appearing at the University’s Culture Lab on Thursday 4 December at 7pm. Contact 0191 222 1332 for more information and tickets.

Photograph courtesy of Harper Collins.

The University has teamed up with the NHS to provide 'talking therapy' for North East people with common psychological problems, such as anxiety and depression, which can prevent them from fully participating in society and enjoying life.

Many people with such problems may have no help at all, have to wait for help or are on medication that may become unnecessary if they have access to a trained professional to talk about their problems and feelings.

Newcastle University and Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust have teamed up to launch the Government-funded Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative, which will provide more trained psychological therapists to talk with patients about their problems and help many of them toward recovery.

Initially the programme is creating 40 posts, based mainly at GP surgeries and clinics, in North and South Tyneside. The University will expand its existing training courses and, together with NHS North East (the Strategic Health Authority), has already recruited its first cohort of additional students.

The IAPT initiative is being rolled out across the country after research showed that many people who were on medication would be better off receiving talking therapy instead.

The Government will invest £173 million in talking therapies in an ambitious national programme including the training of an extra 3,600 psychological therapists over the next three years.

Professor Mark Freeston, a clinical psychologist at Newcastle University, who is involved in the North East initiative, said: ‘Talking therapy can be highly effective. As this becomes widely available, more people will be able to get the help they need and many of those that are on medication may not need it any more.’

The initiative, the first of its kind in the North East, was formally launched on Thursday, 27 November. Training started the day after, when the first students sponsored by NHS North East took up post with the Primary Care Trusts.

One of the world's leading travel websites has named Newcastle the best University city in the UK.

MSN Travel website is full of praise for the city and the lifestyle it offers to students, saying: 'There are many striking examples of civic pride that have stamped its reputation as a must-visit British city.

'For students, the low cost of living, the ease of finding accommodation, proximity to the sea and dramatic countryside, famed nightlife and gregarious Geordie hospitality mix to create a pretty punchy cocktail.

'So potent, in fact, Newcastle tops our list.'

It is not the first time this year that Newcastle has taken top spot in a survey of university locations.

In June 2008, Newcastle was named as the best university town in Britain in a survey carried out by the UK's foremost student accommodation website, accommodationforstudents.com.

Newcastle was judged to be the best, across five criteria, based on more than 36,000 student reviews from 56 university towns around the UK.

Web links to further information:

MSN Travel 'Best University City' home page

MSN Travel's profile of Newcastle University

Previous NewsLink article about the June 2008 survey results

The University has signed an agreement to establish an international branch campus in Johor, Malaysia, named Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed), for the teaching of medicine and biomedical science.

The agreement was signed on Thursday, 20 November, by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, the Chief Executive of NUMed Malaysia, Professor Reg Jordan, and the Managing Director of the Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB), the developer of the Iskandar region of Malaysia, Puan Arlida Ariff.

The development of the 13 acre plot of land marks NUMed as the ‘anchor tenant’ within the EduCity development site and it is expected that other UK universities will follow Newcastle’s lead. Malaysia’s intention is to develop as an academic hub of Asia, attracting world class institutions.

The NUMed campus will offer the degrees Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), which will be identical to the five-year programme offered at Newcastle. The first intake of students will be in September 2009. These initial students will study the first two years of the course at Newcastle’s campus before transferring to Malaysia to continue their studies when the campus opens in 2011.

By opening its facility in EduCity, the University will offer prospective students from Malaysia and the region the chance to obtain a UK medical education at approximately half the cost of studying at the UK campus. It is expected that NUMed, which will feature ‘state-of-the-art’ facilities, will eventually accommodate approximately 900 medical students. There are also future plans to offer post-graduate provision at the campus, which will enable continuing professional development to be delivered to doctors in the public and private hospitals in the region.

Professor Jordan said: ‘We are delighted to be part of this exciting initiative. Our new campus here in Malaysia will widen access to affordable UK education, extend Newcastle’s global footprint and help to meet the University’s mission to translate the outcomes of its academic endeavours for the benefit of society.’

An archaeological survey of the Herschel and Haymarket car parks is set to commence on 1 December, in preparation for the INTO development .

Hoardings will be erected around the site while the survey takes place. The work, which is due to be completed by Spring 2009 ahead of the main INTO construction project, means that 17 spaces in the Haymarket car park will be taken out of use.

Project manager, Richard Johnson, said: ‘INTO and the University apologise for any inconvenience caused by this work. Every effort is being made to allow other car parks not directly affected by the works, to remain in use to minimise disruption.’

Earlier archaeological surveys carried out as part of the development work taking place around the campus have provided a fascinating insight into Newcastle’s heritage.

In February 2008, archaeologists working on the site of the new music building discovered Roman pottery, suggesting this may have been one of the earliest city suburbs. More recently, an archaeological survey of the site for the New Medical Sciences Building revealed evidence of a waterwheel pit and millrace left over from the late 18th century, when the site was occupied by a snuff mill, built in 1871 and designed by the eminent civil engineer, John Smeaton.

Bidding to bring a conference to NewcastleGateshead, and organising an event in the University, has never been easier – thanks to the free support and professional guidance available from the NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau and the services offered by the University Conference Office.

Staff are invited to find out more about the services available at an event being hosted by the Convention Bureau on Wednesday 26 November, 4.00 - 5.30 pm, in the Research Beehive.

Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) who will introduce the presentations, said: 'Staging a high profile conference is one of the best ways for academic staff to put the University on the international map at the same time as gaining widespread recognition for their work. It brings with it unrivalled opportunities for academics to make new contacts, and demonstrate to their peers that Newcastle University is at the forefront of change and innovation.'

NGI's conference development manager, Gill Pilkington, added: 'Whatever your requirements, we can ensure you make the best of the facilities and services on offer, and save you huge amounts of time and effort'.

Dr Olivier Sparagano, a senior lecturer in School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development organized the 2008 British Society for Parasitology Spring Conference. He worked with both the Convention Bureau and the University Conference Office.

He said: 'The bidding process was so easy with the help on offer. It was a great experience, and even with 470 delegates I truly enjoyed it. The outcome has been so positive, I would certainly recommend colleagues to do it.'

• Come and hear about some of the free services and guidance on offer, enjoy a glass of wine and enter a draw to win a fabulous prize. To register for the event, visit: www.newcastlegateshead.com/ambassadorpresentation

If you are unable to attend, but would like more information, please contact Gill Pilkington, Conference Development Manager, NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau on 0191 243 8831 or e-mail gill.pilkington@ngi.org.uk

By Siobhan Warwicker

A university lecturer has sailed his trimaran across the Atlantic in a world record time.

Dr Ross Hobson (pictured) made sailing history by breaking the world record for a transatlantic crossing from Bermuda to Plymouth.

Dr Hobson, a senior lecturer in dental sciences, endured the 2,870 mile journey on a 50ft trimaran, Mollymawk, with the help of crewmembers Guy Gibbins and Simon Redding. They broke the 30-year record by 14 hours when they crossed the finishing line on Monday, August 30.

Dr Hobson and crew completed the journey in 14 days 6 hours, beating the previous record of 14 days 20 hours, which was set by a Frenchman in 1974.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing. The bow section on one of Mollymawk's hulls broke at the start of the voyage, causing concern about whether the boat would hold out and carry the crew safely across the line.

As well as being a great personal achievement for Dr Hobson and his team, the voyage has also helped others by raising about £3,000 for Sail4Cancer, a charity set up by a group of sailors who have all lost someone to cancer. The charity raises funds for treatment and research and also provides sailing opportunities for cancer patients and their families.

After crossing the line in record time, Dr Hobson told journalists he was ecstatic. 'It is a great feeling . . . the record has stood for a long time and we have also raised a lot of money for charity,' he said.

Web link to further information:

Ross Hobson's website

Human sperm have been created using embryonic stem cells for the first time in a scientific development which will lead researchers to a better understanding of the causes of infertility.

Researchers led by Professor Karim Nayernia at Newcastle University's Institute of Human Genetics and the NorthEast England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) have developed a new technique which has made the creation of human sperm possible in the laboratory.

Professor Nayernia says: “This is an important development as it will allow researchers to study in detail how sperm forms and lead to a better understanding of infertility in men – why it happens and what is causing it. This understanding could help us develop new ways to help couples suffering infertility so they can have a child which is genetically their own.”

“It will also allow scientists to study how cells involved in reproduction are affected by toxins, for example, why young boys with leukaemia who undergo chemotherapy can become infertile for life – and possibly lead us to a solution.”

The team also believe that studying the process of forming sperm could lead to a better understanding of how genetic diseases are passed on.

In the technique developed at Newcastle, stem cells with XY chromosomes (male) were developed into germline stem cells which were then prompted to complete meiosis - cell division with halving of the chromosome set. These were shown to produce fully mature, sperm called scientifically, In Vitro Derived sperm (IVD sperm).

In contrast, stem cells with XX chromosomes (female) were prompted to form early stage sperm, spermatagonia, but did not progress further. This demonstrates to researchers that the genes on a Y chromosome are essential for meiosis and for sperm maturation (see a video).

IVD sperm

The IVD sperm will not and cannot be used for fertility treatment. As well as being prohibited by UK law, the research team say fertilization of human eggs and implantation of embryos would hold no scientific merit for them as they want to study the process as a model for research.

“While we can understand that some people may have concerns, this does not mean that humans can be produced ‘in a dish’ and we have no intention of doing this. This work is a way of investigating why some people are infertile and the reasons behind it. If we have a better understanding of what’s going on it could lead to new ways of treating infertility,” adds Professor Nayernia.

Click here to read the full press release or view a video explaining the research or to read a Question and Answer on the research.

To read the front page stories from The Times, The Independent or coverage from Time magazine.

Please note that Professor Karim Nayernia cannot respond to individual enquiries.

Will you be making babies from this sperm?

No. The IVD sperm will not and cannot be used for fertility treatment. This is prohibited by UK law.

This work is not being done to make babies. The research is being done to investigate why some people are infertile. It could also lead to a better understanding of how genetic diseases are passed on from one generation to the next.

Could you make a baby from this sperm?

In theory this might be possible as the IVD sperm show all the characteristics of sperm – that is they act and look like sperm. However, this work is not being done to make a baby which is prohibited by law.

Does this mean an end to men?

No. In this technique IVD sperm could only be produced from an embryo containing a male (Y) chromosome.

However, researchers believe that the issue does need to be debated and legislated for. As work progresses and results improve at Newcastle and elsewhere, it may, in theory, be possible to develop IVD sperm from embryonic stem lines which have been stored.

How long before this will be available as a treatment?

Sperm developed from embryonic stem cells cannot be used as a fertility treatment.

This work is in early stages and much more investigation needs to be done on understanding the process and for testing the suitability and safety of IVD sperm as a possible fertility treatment. However, Professor Nayernia believes that in 10 years this could be a treatment offered for example, to young boys who have to undergo chemotherapy which currently often leaves them infertile.

When combined with other pioneering stem cell techniques, specifically somatic cell nuclear transfer, it could also allow men who are currently infertile the chance to have a child which is genetically their own but again, this will be many years away - at least a decade.

The researchers do believe that given the speed of progress in this area of work, legislation needs to be put in place sooner rather than later to allow for the technique to be licensed as a treatment in the future for infertile men.

Why have you called them IVD sperm?

IVD sperm is the name researchers have adopted to show the sperm are developed in a lab rather than in a human. It comes from In Vitro Derived (similar to IVF – in vitro fertilised).


Please note that Professor Karim Nayernia cannot respond to individual enquiries.

To view a video explaining the research or to read about this research in the press release.

In the last five years the numbers of the sea birds has plummeted around Britain.

On the Isle of May in the North Sea, the largest breeding colony in Britain, numbers fell from 70,000 in 2003 to 41,000 in 2008.

On the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast, numbers also dropped by around a third, from 56,000 to 36,000, during the same period.

In an effort to find out the reason, scientists from Newcastle University are working with National Trust wardens on Brownsman Island on the Farnes to tag and ring puffins.

The tags, which are glued on to the birds feathers and fall off after several days, will help to map their movements to find out where they are going to fish, how they are getting there and what they are doing once they are there.

The team will then collect the tags a few days later and download the data. The information should provide clues to the kind of feeding grounds the birds have been to and therefore the threats they are exposed to.

Dr Richard Bevan, of Newcastle University where the data will be processed, said scientists will be able to work out why puffins are dying from seeing where the birds go in the winter.

"Technological developments now mean that we're getting closer to finding the pieces of the jigsaw to help solve the puffin puzzle. The new data will help explain what the puffins are doing when they're on the Farne Islands and hopefully then help us to understand why numbers have declined so dramatically," he said.

"The tags are very much like the 'Tom-Tom' devices you have in the car. All it does is store the back-data and then retrieve the tag and download the data."

The UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) illustrate for the first time the extent of the changes the UK might face if no action is taken to cut emissions: warmer and wetter winters, hotter and drier summers, increased risk of coastal erosion and more severe weather.

By 2080, it is predicted the country will be between 2^oC and 6^oC hotter than it is now and summer rainfall could decrease by about 20 per cent by the middle of the century.

Drawing on the expertise of researchers based in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, the system uses computer models of the world's climate to make projections of parameters such as temperature, rainfall and wind.

Newcastle University’s Mr Phil James, who led the development of the web portal that allows users access to the data, said the system could be used to give predictions for different climate scenarios.

“The idea is that anyone can interrogate the data and create climate maps of their chosen postcode area or region,” he explained.  “The projections are particularly important for policy makers, farmers and developers who need to plan for the future.”

Professor Chris Kilsby, who led the team responsible for the ‘weather generator’ which produces the data, added: “Until now we have been working with estimates.  Now we have actual data that can be used to predict what the future climate will be 50 years in the future.”

Launching the report, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said, “Climate change is going to transform the way we live.  These projections show us the future we need to avoid, and the future we need to plan for."

Professor Jim Hall added: “We need to understand what changes are likely in the future and make decisions which take account of these changes.  Climate change is really happening and we need to act now.”

The effects of early-stage liver failure have been shown to be reversed in some patients who were given a blood-pressure medicine.

Newcastle University researchers analysed a small clinical trial of losartan, a drug prescribed for hypertension, on 14 patients in Spain, who had Hepatitis C.

The illness was at an advanced stage causing fibrosis - scarring in the liver - which would usually have progressed to liver failure.

Half of the patients in the trial saw the scars in their liver shrink allowing the organ to repair itself.

Professor Derek Mann (pictured) from the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University said: “At the moment we have no proven effective way of treating people with chronic liver disease other than transplantation. This early stage trial has shown that we can shrink liver scarring in some patients and shows promise for a treatment that could make a huge difference to the lives of thousands of people.”

The team whose work has been published in Gastroenterology, say this early stage trial is promising and they now want to carry out several much larger studies initially involving patients with liver disease caused by obesity and then later alcohol, hereditary and autoimmune diseases.

Meanwhile, a Newcastle University team have found that a common genetic difference between people influences their chance of developing a rare but serious liver injury as a side effect of taking the common antibiotic flucloxacillin.

In a paper published online in this week’s issue of Nature Genetics researchers, led by Professor Ann Daly in the Institute of Cellular Medicine, found that individuals carrying the risk-associated gene variant were 80-100 times more likely than non-carriers to suffer liver injury when given the antibiotic.

Further tests will be needed to determine whether a genetic test could be developed for use in the clinic.

For more information:
Liver disease 'shrunk' by blood pressure drug and Professor Derek Mann.

Genetic variation influences adverse reaction to common antibiotic and Professor Ann Daly.

Motion capture tools are used by the performing arts for everything from live productions to creative screen-bound works, choreographic notation and archiving, but it is difficult to identify required sequences for a given project amid the mass of data these tools generate.

Led by principal investigator Sally Jane Norman, Director of Culture Lab, Newcastle
University, researchers have come up with a prototype data retrieval tool which makes selecting movement features or sequences much easier: the user 'sketches' the required movement with a mouse or pen and this triggers a search for a similar sequence.

Details of the research are being published online in the Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A today (Monday 1 June 2009).

"Capturing human movement data theoretically interests a variety of people, but its actual usefulness depends on how effectively data retrieval and analysis can be performed," explained Dr Norman.  "This development opens up far more cross-sector opportunities, making human motion capture a rich area of interdisciplinary investigation twenty years after the animation industry first teamed up with biomechanics experts."

As performing artists can accurately reproduce complex gestures and adopt novel creative approaches, they are ideal test subjects for developers tracking human movement.

Motion capture works across many disciplines, with artistic performance skills combined with research from sectors such as biomechanics, sensor development and information processing.

In addition to the biomedical sector, where movement is monitored for diagnostic or corrective purposes, motion capture libraries are increasingly being used by the cinematographic and games industries, and in education, advertising, training manuals and simulators.

The AMUC project (Associated Motion Capture User Categories) is an interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded initiative led by Culture Lab. with co-investigators from SAgE.

For further information on the AMUC project, see http://culturelab.ncl.ac.uk/amuc/

Caption: AMUC motion capture traces of a kobudō movement (c) Culture Lab, Newcastle University
 

The new technology - being designed by Newcastle, Manchester Metropolitan and Queen Mary universities - uses electro magnetic waves in order to pick up 'reflections' from concealed guns, gun barrels or knives without the need to be close to the person.

It also uses ‘neural network’ technology - as used in automatic number plate recognition systems - to identify the weapon and ignore everyday items.

The new device is non-intrusive so no image of the person’s body is created.

The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is sponsored and supported by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office Scientific Development Branch.

Newcastle University lead Professor Gui Yun Tian, based in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, said this was the first time technology had been developed to identify both the hidden weapon and who is concealing it.

Professor Tian, who specialises in sensor technologies at Newcastle University, explained: “Abuse of guns and knives has become a pressing concern regarding public safety.

“Existing systems are very limited.  They can detect a metal object but not what the object is.  Our new sensor offers a much wider range of possibilities.”

This step-change in capacity could pave the way for a new generation of electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the £1.5m project is being carried out jointly by researchers at Newcastle University, the University of St Andrews and Strathclyde University.

Newcastle lead Professor Keith Scott said the results so far had been very exciting.

"Here at Newcastle we are developing the new air-electrode interface – the part of the battery where the reaction takes place," explains Prof Scott, professor of electrochemical engineering at Newcastle University.

"The cells are charged in a traditional way but as power is used or 'discharged' an open mesh section of battery – the interface – draws in oxygen from the surrounding air.

"This oxygen reacts with a porous carbon component inside the battery, which creates more energy and helps to continually discharge the cell."

The new design has the potential to improve the performance of portable electronic products and give a major boost to the renewable energy industry.

The batteries will enable a constant electrical output from sources such as wind or solar, which stop generating when the weather changes or night falls.

The STAIR (St Andrews Air) cell should be cheaper than today’s rechargeables too. The new component is made of porous carbon, which is far less expensive than the lithium cobalt oxide it replaces.

This four-year research project reaches its halfway mark in July.  Principal investigator on the project, Professor Peter Bruce of the University of St Andrews, said: "Our target is to get a five to ten fold increase in storage capacity, which is beyond the horizon of current lithium batteries. Our results so far are very encouraging and have far exceeded our expectations."

Jason Green, EPSRC head of energy, said: "This type of technology is a vital building block in the move towards the low carbon economy that the UK needs, and particularly the move towards a more widespread use of electric vehicles."

Limbs Alive, a series of video games designed to increase children’s motor skills, has won first place in the NHS Innovation North's Bright Ideas in Health awards.

Designed by experts from the University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the aim of the new technology is to help children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy to use both their hands rather than favouring their stronger side.

Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy tend to learn strategies and techniques to manage tasks with one hand even if there is only mild impairment in the affected limb.

As they grow older, these children increasingly neglect the impaired hand, but if this is addressed early enough - by increasing use of the affected arm - the impairment becomes preventable or even reversible.
  
The team consisted of:

• Professor Janet Eyre, Professor of Paediatric Neurology, Developmental Neuroscience Group, Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, who leads a programme of research which centres on the normal development of the control of upper limb movement in children and adolescents.
  
• Janice Pearse, Research Occupational Therapist, Developmental Neuroscience Group, Newcastle University, who leads the group in the development and validation of methods of assessing upper limb function and in devising, evaluating and implementing new therapeutic strategies for improving arm and hand function.
  
• Sara Graziadio, PhD candidate, Developmental Neuroscience Group, Newcastle University, who is responsible for the game and level design and takes on the role of creative director.
• Giordano Ferdinandi, an independent consultant responsible for the development of the games, from research and development to the implementation of proprietary technologies and gameplay elements.

Pictured are Sara Graziadio, Giordano Ferdinandi,  Janice Pearse and Prof Aiden Mullen, Director of Nursing and Patient Safety, NHS North East, along with children who were part of the project.

The Bright Ideas in Health Awards 2009, held at the Hilton, Gateshead on 7 May 2009, were open to all NHS staff in the region. The aim of the awards is to identify and support NHS innovators that have developed new product ideas and services to bring about improved healthcare.

That’s the finding of a large study led by Professor Allan Colver at Newcastle University which set out to assess participation in 818 children with cerebral palsy aged 8-12 years in several European countries.

Participation, defined as involvement in life situations, and meaning what children actually do and what they get involved in, is important for all children, but little is known about it in disabled children.

In the study published on bmj.com, they found that the level at which children were able to get involved varied substantially between countries.

They describe how children with cerebral palsy participate much less than the general population; and if they have severe cerebral palsy or pain, they participate even less.

These findings show how important it is to assess children’s pain status and manage it effectively, state the authors.

They also found large differences between countries, meaning children with equivalent severity of cerebral palsy participate much better in some countries than others. Denmark turned out to be the country where children participated best but children in Northern England were not far behind (third).

Professor Colver says, “This tells us that the environment in which children live is very important and that some countries provide better environments for disabled children than others. This fits in with the idea that much can be achieved by adjusting the environment rather than through treatments and therapies which at the moment do not provide cures and may be painful, time consuming and sometimes actually interfere with the child’s opportunities to get involved and participate.”

The researchers suggest that both pain and participation of disabled children should be assessed in clinical practice to help guide intervention.

They also recommend that national policies, regulation and legislation should be directed to ensuring all countries adapt environments to optimise the participation of disabled children, building on the experience of those countries that make best provision.

For more information see full press release.

Two books which explore the environmental and maritime heritage of Cullercoats have been launched by the Dove Marine Laboratory.

The 28-page booklets on the plant and wildlife of Cullercoats and the maritime heritage of the village are the result of a two year outreach project between the university and pupils from Cullercoats Primary School.

Marine biologist Susan Gebbels, based at the Dove, said the aim of the outreach project had been to collect and collate information about the area and share it with the rest of the community.

“This project was about involving the whole community and encouraging people to take an interest in their local heritage,” she explained.

“We wanted to draw on the experiences and knowledge of local people and inspire the young people to have a pride and appreciation of their maritime and environmental heritage.

“It has been an extremely successful project and we are grateful to everyone who has taken part.”

The project involved several community groups including the community centre, Cullercoats Primary School, the RNLI and local history society.

Flowers that want to cheat pollinators by not paying them for their services shouldn’t try to lure them in using floral scents, scientists at Newcastle University have shown.

Pollinators such as the honeybee are important to plants because they help to ensure that cross-fertilisation takes place, which is essential for plant sexual reproduction.

But producing nectar for pollinators is a costly business. Instead, some plants try to cheat a pollinator - enticing it to visit and then failing to pay for its services - and getting sexual reproduction for free.

New research, published in the academic journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows if a honeybee is faced with two similar smelling plants it quickly learns which scent is associated with the ‘sweetest’ nectar and makes a beeline for it.

Led by Newcastle University’s Dr Jeri Wright, the study suggests that a bee’s ability to associate floral scent with the best nectar may be the key to understanding how floral scent has evolved in flowering plants.

Biologist Dr Wright explains: “Our research shows that because bees can learn about the signals associated with nectar quality they have the means of avoiding floral ‘cheaters’ , preferring instead to visit the floral scents they’ve learned to associate with profitable rewards.

“This ability to learn forces flowering plants to be honest about the rewards they advertise and may even select for plants both with scented flowers and with high quality nectar because these plants out-compete others in a floral marketplace."

Plants advertise food rewards using colour, shape and scent as signals for enticing pollinators to visit them.

Nectar production uses vital energy and nutrients and some plants have learnt to falsely advertise the nectar they have on offer, enticing the pollinators to visit and then offering no payment – or poor payment – in return.

This latest research shows that floral signals associated with the best quality nectar cause pollinators to become biased towards these signals and steer away from flowers with poor quality nectar or no nectar at all.

Dr Wright said the research suggests that a bee’s ‘sweet-tooth’ is likely to be affecting the floral signals that plants use to advertise nectar.

“This is extremely important to the plants because it affects whether or not bees visit them and, therefore, whether or not plants sexually reproduce,” she explains.

Sex offenders could be made to take lie detector tests as part of their probation conditions on release from prison, or face being sent back, it has been announced.

The pilot scheme will be run by Don Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, and (Hon) Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust. It will run in probation areas in the East and West Midlands for three years, to establish whether polygraph testing can assist in the management of sex offenders in the community.

About 25 offenders have been chosen to take part in the three year pilot project that starts on Wednesday (8th April) and between 350 and 450 are expected to be tested over the next three years.

Professor Grubin, who will be carrying out the tests, said: “Polygraph testing of sex offenders is part of a package that is aimed at preventing new sex offences from being committed.

“Disclosures made during polygraph examinations, as well as conclusions drawn from passed or failed examinations, allow probation officers and the police to intervene to reduce risk.

“Just as importantly, it is also aimed at enhancing the co-operation of offenders with supervision, helping them to focus on, and avoid, the sorts of behaviours that make re-offending more likely.”

Each polygraph session will take between 90 minutes and two hours and will consist of three phases.

In a pre-test interview the subject will be told the questions they are to be asked so they can make any relevant disclosures beforehand. They will then be attached to the polygraph machine and asked the questions. Thirdly, the polygraph operator will interpret the responses and, in a final interview, the subject will be told the results of the test and asked to account for any failures.

Announcing the scheme, Justice Minister David Hanson MP said: “The first duty of the Criminal Justice System is to protect the public. Putting in place thorough systems to ensure high level vigilance of serious sexual and violent offenders on their release from prison is vital in our work protecting communities from crime.

“The tests will help us determine whether the polygraph can be a useful additional tool in the management of sex offenders, in order to protect the public. It will be used alongside other processes in place to manage these offenders.”

The new pilot and subsequent research will seek to establish whether polygraphy tests should be made mandatory for all sex offenders and rolled out across the country.

Further information can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

Newcastle scientists uncover the deepest secrets of the tsunami wave.

A new mathematical formula that could be used to give advance warning of where a tsunami is likely to hit and how destructive it will be has been worked out by scientists at Newcastle University.

The research, led by Newcastle University’s Professor Robin Johnson, was prompted by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster which devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

In this instance, an earthquake in the depths of the ocean triggered a long surface wave which resulted in six massive wave fronts, one after the other.

Of these waves it was the third and largest one that caused the most devastation, hitting the beaches with terrifying speed.  Reaching a height of 20m, it is this wave that lifted a train from its tracks as it travelled along the Sri Lankan coastline, killing almost 1,000 people.

Professor Johnson and his colleague Professor Adrian Constantin, based at the University of Vienna, Austria, felt that if we could understand more about how these long water waves behave we could predict where they might hit and how devastating they might be.

Their research is published in the academic journal Science Direct: Fluid Dynamics Research, and this paper has recently been named the Journal’s best paper of the year.

“What we found was that the number and height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on the shape of the initial surface wave in deep water,” explained Professor Johnson, Professor of Applied Mathematics at Newcastle University.

“From this it is possible to work out whether a ‘trough’ or a ‘peak’ is the leading wave.  In the case of a trough then the familiar sight of the tide suddenly going out is the precursor to an approaching tsunami.

“If a peak is the leading wave, there is no warning except a fast-approaching wall of water.

“Potentially this could provide vital information for areas facing an impending disaster.”

Warm summers are dramatically reducing populations of daddy long legs, which in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food.

New research by a team of bird experts, including Newcastle University’s Dr Mark Whittingham, spells out for the first time how climate change may affect upland bird species like the golden plover – perhaps pushing it towards local extinction by the end of the century.

It also points a way forward to how we can attempt to strengthen habitats to help wildlife adapt to our changing climate and prevent such consequences.

Previous research has shown how changes in the timing of the golden plover breeding season as a result of increasing spring temperatures might affect their ability to match the spring emergence of their cranefly (daddy long legs) prey.

The new research, published today in the scientific journal Global Change Biology, shows the true effects are much more severe.

Higher temperatures in late summer are killing the cranefly larvae, resulting in a drop of up to 95 per cent in the number of adult craneflies emerging the following spring.  With these craneflies providing a crucial food source for a wide range of upland birds like the golden plover, this means starvation and death for many chicks.

“The population of Golden Plovers in our study will likely be extinct in around 100 years if temperature predictions are correct and the birds cannot adapt to feed on other prey sources,” explains Newcastle University’s Dr Mark Whittingham, who worked on the study with scientists from RSPB Scotland and Aberystwyth and Manchester universities.

“Our study models the impacts of climate change on the ecology of the animal. In this case we show that higher August temperatures, as predicted from climate change models, are correlated with lower numbers of daddy-long legs.

“Daddy long-leg abundance is key for Golden Plover chicks in terms of growth and survival.  Worryingly, our work is likely to apply to other upland bird species that also rely on daddy-long legs as a prey resource, such as Curlew.”

Politics and profit are a bigger threat to global water supplies than the environment, according to Newcastle University sociologist Dr Jose Esteban Castro.

“There is no need for anybody in the world to be without water,” he explained. “With a few exceptions, lack of water is not down to scarcity, technology or geography, but rather a result of a lack of political and social will.

“A crucial problem in recent decades has been influential players in the international community promoting the notion that essential water services should not be regarded as any different from other goods or services.

“As a result, international water policies have focused on making water a profitable business for private companies rather than expanding access to those who are currently without any clean water. This raises serious ethical and political problems.”

At a basic level, we need only 20-30 litres each per day, and only about three litres of this has to be clean enough to drink. However, round 17 per cent of the world’s population is still without access to clean water and 40 percent lacks access to basic sanitation, despite the fact that technology able to turn this situation around has been available for decades.

Dr Castro has just finished editing a book, Water and Sanitation Services: Public Policy and Management, with Dr Leo Heller, an engineer from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which is being offcially launched next month (16 April).

The book discusses existing approaches for organising water services, including different forms of public management, private sector participation, and community and cooperative schemes, and looks at how the situation could be improved through learning from other successful schemes across the globe.

The UN Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 seek to halve the amount of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015, but, despite significant progress in some countries, evidence shows that this may be impossible to achieve.

Picture credit: barthetzk

A survey of top climate scientists has revealed there is a real chance of key climate tipping points being passed with serious consequences for the planet.

In a major study involving 43 of the world’s leading climate experts, scientists have for the first time worked out the likelihood of one of the major climate thresholds being breached.

Tipping points are used to describe a situation where damage due to climate change occurs irreversibly and at an increasing rate.

In this latest research - published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - the internationally-renowned climate team conclude there is a 1 in 6 chance of at least one threshold being passed with a rise of just 2-4 degrees in global average temperature.

If the average increase in temperature is higher than this, then the probability becomes 1 in 2.

Newcastle University’s Professor Jim Hall, Deputy Director, Engineering, of the Tyndall Centre on Climate Change and one of the five authors of the paper, said the aim was to produce policy-relevant information about the likelihood of a tipping point being toppled.

“For the first time we have managed to quantify the uncertainty of these phenomena and the take-home message is tipping points are serious and should play a key role in policy decision making,” said Professor Hall.

“Think of it as like taking out insurance cover. Insurers use probabilities to work out how much we should pay to protect ourselves in the event of something going seriously wrong.

“And it’s exactly the same for the climate. We have provided real data for these key climate indicators and what this has shown is there are good reasons why we should be taking urgent action now to reduce the possibility of something going catastrophically wrong in the future.”

See full press release

A clinical trial is to be launched by researchers at Newcastle and Liverpool Universities to test if genetics could provide personalised medicine by optimising each patient’s dose of the common blood-thinning drug, warfarin.

One of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, warfarin is used to prevent dangerous blood clots that can lead to heart attacks, strokes or even death.

One per cent of people in the UK are prescribed warfarin but doctors find the ideal dose for each person varies widely and is hard to predict, yet is crucial for the patient’s safety. Getting the wrong amount can be dangerous - if the dose is too high, patients could bleed profusely, if it’s too low, they could develop life-threatening clots.

Researchers know that two genes, CYP2C9 and VKORC1, which vary slightly among different individuals, can influence warfarin’s effectiveness. Now, scientists want to work out whether information about these genes could improve decisions on the amount of warfarin given to a patient at the start of treatment.

Professor Farhad Kamali and Professor Ann Daly from the Institute of Cellular Medicine are leading the Newcastle University trial.

Professor Kamali says, "The way different patients respond to warfarin is notoriously unpredictable, particularly at the very start of treatment. Now we know that certain genes can affect the way individual patients respond to warfarin then we can use this information to personalise therapy. This clinical trial will be able to demonstrate whether the gene-guided dosing can optimise the safety of anticoagulation therapy.”

Using information from thousands of patients, an international team of researchers, including those at  Newcastle University, have developed a mathematical formula using patient’s genetic information that could help doctors better determine optimal warfarin doses. The results of the analysis are published in a paper in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The results revealed that when genetic information was included, the predictions of ideal dosages were more accurate, especially for patients at the low or high ends of the dosing range.

Newcastle University will be part of an international clinical trial to determine if the more precise, gene-based prescribing strategy is the best option for patients starting treatment.
 
Patients for the trial, which is due to start in October, will be recruited through doctors targeting the regions around Newcastle and Liverpool.

For more on this story see the full press release.

A Newcastle University study has shown that obese women who become pregnant have an increased risk of their baby being born with certain abnormalities, including spina bifida. 

Researchers from the Institute of Health and Society found that women who were obese were more than twice as likely to have a baby with spina bifida, a condition which affects a very small number of pregnancies but which may result in disability.

Dr Judith Rankin from the team who carried out the study says, “Women who are thinking about trying for a baby need to check their own weight first and then think about seeking help if they are overweight. While you are pregnant it’s not the time to start a weight loss diet but it is more important to eat sensibly and healthily.” 

Recent studies suggest up to a fifth of pregnant mothers are classed as obese in the UK - a figure that has doubled in the last 10 years.

Obese is considered as a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30, while overweight is classed as a BMI over 25, as categorized by the World Health Organisation. 

The study, which has been published in the academic journal JAMA, analysed and combined data from 39 previous studies to look at the risks of abnormalities in the baby for mothers who were obese or overweight. 

It showed that obese women were nearly twice as likely to have a baby with neural tube defects which are caused by the incomplete development of the brain, spinal cord and/or their protective coverings. For one of those conditions, spina bifida, the risk was more than doubled. 

Researchers also detected an increased risk in heart defects, cleft lip and palate, a malformation of the lower bowel, increased risk of water on the brain and problems in the growth of arms and legs.

For more on this story see the full press release or coverage on BBC News or Time magazine.

The remarkable behaviour of bacteria that have been forced to live without their protective wall has allowed Newcastle University scientists to open a new window on the origins of life on earth.

All living cells on the planet go through the process of division in order to survive and thrive. Cell division, or binary fission, allows one cell to split down the middle to become two cells.

In the work published in Nature, the team from the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences have found that under some conditions, including treatment with antibiotics, common bacteria switch to a whole new way of increasing in number that may have been used by the first cells to evolve on the planet.

Bacteria have been around for more than two billion years and now occupy every corner of the environment. The secret of their success seems to be their tough outer skin or cell wall. This protective barrier can also be a weakness and is the target for many of our best antibiotics, including penicillin.

The Newcastle University scientists have found out how to induce a bacterium to live without a wall. These fragile cells called L-forms, have a wobbly shape with only a thin surface membrane holding them together. What has surprised scientists is that the bacteria seem to be pre-prepared to make this switch to life without a wall.

The scientists believe that the bacteria kept this ability as a way of surviving attacks on their wall that have been happening since the earliest life-form but now happen regularly when patients are treated with antibiotics.

Now that L-forms can be studied more closely the researchers were able to witness that instead of dividing in two, the L-form bacterium pulsates and then ‘squirts out babies’, sometimes as many as five new bacteria each time. This was completely unexpected.

“What we have uncovered seems to be a primitive mode of growth probably used by the very earliest cells on the planet,” says Professor Errington, Director of the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences.

For more on this story see the full press release.

A 12 month research programme led by Newcastle and Northumbria Universities will pave the way for the UK’s first national leadership programme, aimed at helping managers build bridges between higher education and partner organisations, to benefit cities and regions.

The research and dissemination exercise will focus on the cities of Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle, where the researchers will interview and consult with senior managers from universities and their partners in the private and public sectors.

The aim is to provide the foundation for an emergent national leadership programme, which will provide managers across the Higher Education sector and in different cities with the knowledge and skills to enable them to work more effectively together.

Principal investigators are Professor John Goddard (pictured), former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University; Lynne Howlett, the University’s Leadership and Management Development Adviser; Dr Paul Vallance, Research Associate in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at the University and Dr Tom Kennie, adviser to the Leadership Foundation in Higher Education.

The research is being funded with £69,500 from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Leadership Governance and Management fund.

Professor Goddard said there was strong evidence from case studies in the UK and abroad that successful partnerships between universities and other organisations depended upon mutual understanding of the business principles that affect each of the partners.

In England, major policy changes such as the Sub-National Review of Economic Policy, which puts new economic development responsibilities on local government, and the DIUS Innovation Nation Review, with its focus on innovative places, have profound implications for the way in which universities relate to their localities.

All UK universities are undertaking similar endeavours of partnership building and each city is seeking to build partnerships with “their” universities to enhance the city’s national and international competitiveness and contribute to the development of inclusive communities, he said.

At the same time the universities are seeking local support for their ambitions in terms of research, teaching and business and community engagement, said Professor Goddard.

The cities of Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle are all hubs of wider city-regions and have been selected by the researchers from the Core Cities, a network formally constituted by an association of local authorities.

The 12 month research project will explore how different types and sizes of university within different types and size of city can benefit from collaboration, the specific challenges facing civic leaders and what approaches work well and why.

A recent OECD review suggested that despite an abundance of projects linking Universities to their localities, many were ineffective because of a variety of reasons, including the constraints of short-term funding, poor connections between leaders of partner organisations and a tendency for higher education to act as a ‘closed’ system in terms of staff development.

However, the city of Newcastle has been pioneering new ways of developing civic leadership. Examples include partnerships such as The NewcastleGateshead Initiative and Newcastle Science City, the involvement of higher education in the city bid to be Capital of Culture and the appointment of Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Engagement by both Newcastle and Northumbria Universities.

A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, scientists at Newcastle University have found.

Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have shown that by giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual, farmers can increase their annual milk yield by almost 500 pints.

The study, published in the academic journal Anthrozoos, found that on farms where each cow was called by her name the overall milk yield was higher than on farms where the cattle were herded as a group.

“Just as people respond better to the personal touch, cows also feel happier and more relaxed if they are given a bit more one-to-one attention,” explains Dr Douglas, who works in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development at Newcastle University.

"What our study shows is what many good, caring farmers have long since believed.

“By placing more importance on the individual, such as calling a cow by her name or interacting with the animal more as it grows up, we can not only improve the animal's welfare and her perception of humans, but also increase milk production."

Dairy farmer Dennis Gibb, who co-owns Eachwick Red House Farm outside Newcastle with his brother Richard, says he believes treating every cow as an individual is “vitally important”.

“They aren’t just our livelihood - they’re part of the family,” says Dennis. “We love our cows here at Eachwick and every one of them has a name. Collectively we refer to them as ‘our ladies’ but we know every one of them and each one has her own personality.”

The Newcastle University study looked at how farmers’ attitudes to their cows influenced milk production.

Dr Douglas and Dr Rowlinson questioned 516 UK dairy farmers about how they believed humans could affect the productivity, behaviour and welfare of dairy cattle.

Almost half – 46 per cent – said the cows on their farm were called by name. Those that called their cows by name had a 258 litre higher milk yield than those who did not.

For more on this story see the full press release or coverage on BBC News or CNN.

• Help coordinate international responses between countries to achieve a far more effective way to tackle food security than creating new global funds and partnerships that duplicate efforts or create conflict
• Facilitate discussions on global responses to agriculture and food production and distribution, including reform of the World Trade Organisation negotiations and agreements 

At a time of year when many of us are thinking about how to get rid of a few extra pounds, research at Newcastle University has shown that even the magazine you read may affect how healthy your diet is.

The first-ever study of food adverts in UK magazines was led by Dr Jean Adams in the Institute of Health and Society. The adverts were found to be made up of sugary, salt-filled options, often contradicting the health messages the articles were trying to put across.

 “Nearly every magazine contains advice on a healthier lifestyle, yet we found the food adverts were for products high in sugar and salt and low in fibre such as ready meals, sauces and confectionary,” explains Dr Adams.

“Obviously, it’s up to each of us to decide what we eat but if we’re constantly bombarded with images of unhealthy food every time we pick up a magazine then we’re going to be swayed in what we choose,” she adds.

The research published online in the European Journal of Public Health involved collecting and comparing data on the nutritional content of the foods advertised in 30 most widely-read weekly magazines during November 2007.

“Health bodies and the government are trying to encourage all of us to eat a healthier diet, yet we found that many of the magazines, especially those targeting lower-income families are full of adverts promoting food that is largely unhealthy,” says Dr Adams.

“Families are facing so many social pressures that it’s a constant battle to stay on the right track when choosing and preparing meals and these adverts are doing little to help.”

It means that women sitting down to enjoy the treat of a cup of tea, a chocolate bar and a magazine may unwittingly be tempted to an even unhealthier diet.

For more on this story see the full press release or coverage in Irish Health.

Staff from SAGE and HASS faculties are joining together to help safeguard some of the country’s most ‘at risk’ ancient stone monuments.

Many of these monuments, such as standing stones, are found in isolated parts of the countryside.

“Despite their apparent robustness and resilience, these ancient monuments occupy a fragile place in the rural landscape where they are under continuous threat from tourism, agriculture and climate change,” explained Dr Aron Mazel, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies.

“As a consequence we urgently need to change our level of understanding of both human and environmental factors that accelerate the deterioration of these monuments.”

Dr Mazel and Professor David Graham, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, are leading a new inter-disciplinary project which will bring together environmental scientists and heritage practitioners, including those from English Heritage and Northumberland County Council.

“Cross-faculty working, although on the increase, is still quite rare,” explained Professor Graham. “With a project like this, the benefits from working with colleagues from other disciplines are immense, as we all come at it from a different perspective, which will help to bring about a more holistic solution.”

Other Newcastle University researchers involved are Dr Myra Giesen, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Dr Geoff Parkin and Professor Ian Head, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and Professor David Manning, Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability.

The research work, which will begin with a two-day workshop in early March 2009, is being funded through a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)/ Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Heritage Clusters competition.

It will involve working across the disciplines of heritage science research, incorporating geochemistry, molecular microbiology, ecology, geomorphology, botany, hydrology, archaeology and heritage management.

Article submitted by Aron Mazel: a.d.mazel@ncl.ac.uk

Caption: Duddo stones, Northumberland

Employees are to be offered free fruit at work as part of a major new study to see if a fruit boost can improve the fitness of the UK workforce.

Led jointly by researchers at Newcastle University and the Technical University of Denmark, the ‘Fruit at Work’ study aims to find out if offering free fruit in the workplace can improve employees’ health and wellbeing.

The project – which starts today (Monday 12) – is the first of its kind in the UK and to launch the trial 500 volunteers are being recruited from Durham County Council.

For the next six months, half the volunteers will receive two free pieces of fruit a day while the control group will initially continue with their normal diet.

Measuring key indicators such as weight, blood pressure and waist size, the study will also look at the number of sick days staff take, staff morale and overall productivity.

Project lead Professor Chris Seal, of Newcastle University, said:  “We all know how much fruit and vegetables we should be eating a day but many of us still don’t do it.

“When you ask people why they don’t, the two most common answers are cost and availability.  This initiative overcomes both these problems.

“The idea is that if people have easy access to, say, an apple or banana, then fruit will replace the less healthy snacks which so many of us reach for when we take a coffee break.”

The ‘Fruit at Work Study’ falls under the ISAFRUIT Project – an EU funded, 13.8 million Euro international study involving 300 scientists from 16 different countries.

As well as looking at the individual health benefits of eating more fruit, the study will measure the cost-effectiveness to an employer of offering free fruit to staff.

In Denmark, free fruit at work is provided by over 60 per cent of companies.  Over the next six months, the experimental group at Durham will consume an extra 20 tonnes of fruit – an estimated 160,000 apples, bananas and oranges.

Dr Phil Wynn, Senior Occupational Physician for the County Council, said: “The County Council is keen to pursue a broad agenda promoting workplace health and well-being support for its staff.

“The ‘Fruit at Work’ project is an element of this and will help determine whether this is an effective workplace intervention meriting long-term implementation.”

Charlotte Bryant, a research nutritionist at Newcastle University and co-ordinator of the ISAFRUIT project in the UK, explained: “We’re not asking people in the control group to stop eating fruit – if they would normally have an apple at coffee time then that’s fine.

“What we’re interested in is increasing people’s consumption of fruit and the effect that might have on their health.”

Flooding like that which devastated the North of England last year is set to become a common event across the UK in the next 75 years, new research has shown.

Flooding like that which devastated the North of England last year is set to become a common event across the UK in the next 75 years, new research has shown.

A study by Dr Hayley Fowler, of Newcastle University, predicts that severe storms – the likes of which currently occur every five to 25 years across the UK – will become more common and more severe in a matter of decades.

Looking at ‘extreme rainfall events’ – where rain falls steadily and heavily for between one and five days – the study predicts how the intensity of these storms may change in the future.

Dr Fowler found that across the UK, the amount of rain falling during one of these extreme events was likely to increase by up to 30 per cent by 2080.  This increase is most likely to occur in autumn, winter and spring when the ground is already saturated, posing the biggest threat of flooding.

Dr Fowler, Reader in Climate Change Impacts at Newcastle, explained: “Predicting how extreme rainfall might change many years in the future is very difficult because events can be quite localised, especially in the summer.

“You only have to think about how difficult it is for the Met office to predict the weather two or three days in advance – the overall picture for the country tends to stay the same but local weather patterns can change quite dramatically.

“By taking a much more detailed look at the results from different regional climate models, we have created a more accurate picture of how wet Britain will be by 2070.

“What the data quite clearly shows is that we’re going to see far more of these extreme downpours in years to come, putting more and more homes at risk from flooding, particularly in autumn and winter months when the ground is already saturated.”

The research, published online today in the International Journal of Climatology, looks at changes to seasonal extreme rainfall across the UK by 2070-2100.

Dr Fowler, who worked on the study with Dr Marie Ekstrom from Exeter University, examined seasonal rainfall data from 13 Regional Climate Models for nine regions across the UK and used this to study the projected changes.

Consistent with global warming, the team found that as the air becomes warmer and is able to hold more moisture, Britain will get wetter.

In general, the study suggests larger changes to the intensity of short duration extreme rainfall events – those lasting one or two days.  Northern and western regions of the UK are predicted to be worst hit.

Dr Fowler added:  “Unfortunately, we still have least confidence in the model’s predictions for the summer months and it is still highly uncertain how summer flash flooding such as the Hull and Hereford and Worcester floods in 2007 will change.

“What our data does show is that floods are no longer going to be freak events.  All 13 models we looked at predict increases in extreme rainfall in winter, autumn and spring by the 2080s although the percent increase varies.

“This has major implications for flood risk management.  We need to be looking now at where we build new homes, drainage systems and water storage in order to protect our homes and businesses from flooding in the future.”

Episodes of short-term extreme rainfall – such as was seen in Morpeth in 2008 – are predicted to increase in intensity by between 15 and 30 per cent.

In winter, one day downpours are predicted to increase in intensity in all regions with Scotland and northern England seeing changes of more than 20 per cent.  Smaller increases are projected for southern regions, particularly south-east England.

In autumn, some regional climate models project potentially very large increases in extreme rainfall, with a rise of up to 60 per cent in some regions such as north-west England.

Scientists at Newcastle University discover a new group of bacteria responsible for adding flavour to some of the world's most exclusive cheeses.

It’s an age-old tradition that dates back at least 8,000 years but it seems we still have much to learn about the bacteria responsible for turning milk into cheese.

Now an international research team led by Newcastle University has identified a new line of bacteria they believe add flavour to some of the world’s most exclusive cheeses.

The team used DNA fingerprinting techniques to identify eight previously undiscovered microbes on the French cheese Reblochon.

One of France’s great mountain cheeses, Reblochon is a ‘smear-ripened’ cheese where the surface of the cheese is washed with a salt solution containing bacteria. This process helps to spread the bacteria across the surface of the cheese, ripening it from the outside in.

Other popular smear-ripened cheeses on the Christmas cheeseboard include Port de Salut, Livarot, Taleggio, Limburger and the Irish cheese Gubbeen.

The team have named the microbes Mycetocola reblochoni after the cheese they were first discovered in.

Project lead Professor Michael Goodfellow of Newcastle University said: “It has always been thought the bacteria cheese makers were putting in at the start of the process gave Reblochon its distinctive flavour.

“What our research actually showed was this new group of bacteria - the reblochoni –were responsible for the ripening process, influencing the taste, texture and smell of the cheese.”

Reblochon – a soft, creamy, brie-like cheese – is made in the Savoy mountain region of France.

Using samples from three different farmhouses, the team carried out a series of modern molecular techniques to classify the bacteria.

Traditionally, smear-ripened cheeses such as Reblochon are exposed to a starter culture, a live mixture containing the microbe Brevibacterium linens, to ripen the cheese.

Now the research has shown that a new group of bacterial strains are involved in the later stage of ripening, out-competing the Brevibacterium and providing the flavour.

The reblochoni microbes are part of a large group of bacteria known as the Actinomycetes, many of which are already used in the production of antibiotics to treat diseases such as tuberculosis and diphtheria.

Professor Goodfellow says the next step will be to study the potential benefits of these new microbes.

“The next stage is to see how these new microbes might be used. Bacteria get a bad name because they are associated with causing disease but many are extremely beneficial and our reblochoni group may well prove to have important uses.”

The research is published this month in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology.

A study of hundreds of family trees suggests a man’s genetic make-up may decide whether he has sons or daughters.

The first-ever unit dedicated to patients with conditions associated with ageing has opened.

The Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU) aims to offer help to people like 61-year-old Andrew Gilmore who six years ago was virtually bed-ridden. He says he has been able to rebuild his life and run his own company thanks to the specialist help he's received from his medical team and experts at Newcastle University.

Mr Gilmore from Gosforth in Newcastle was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1990. Ongoing treatment by medical teams at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust combined with specialist treatment at Newcastle University’s Institute of Ageing and Health has meant that he is now able to live life to the full.

Andrew has been taking part in clinical trials run through CARU. He said: 'The difference in my life since getting this treatment has been tremendous. I am able to run my business, enjoy a good quality of life and I can walk again after having to spend much of my time in bed. I can’t praise the staff who help me enough.'

The new £5.5m clinical facility officially opened its doors on Tuesday, 9th December when one of the building’s funders Dr Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, marked the occasion by unveiling a plaque. The University’s Clinical Ageing Research Unit is the first dedicated to patients like Andrew with conditions associated with ageing including Parkinson’s, Alzheimers and other forms of dementia.

CARU, which has also been funded by the Wolfson Foundation, has a wide range of facilities to help assess older patients. One example is the ‘gait’ laboratory where patients can be wired to monitors and recorded walking around to identify any problems with their movement. Researchers and consultants can also gain accurate information on exactly which part of their feet are touching the floor and how long each stride is from a pressure-point carpet. This is important as it helps work out who may be at a higher risk of falling and to see if treatments aimed at improving balance are working.

The director of CARU, Professor David Burn said: “This unit aims to help us diagnose diseases earlier on – particularly those in older people. This will mean we can potentially start treatments earlier when they can make a bigger difference to the person and their families. CARU has state-of-the-art equipment particularly designed for elderly people and this is going to allow us to carry out some very exciting trials.”

Newcastle is a science city and its chief executive, Peter Arnold said: “The Institute of Ageing and Health is an important part of Newcastle Science City’s work and leads Europe in its research field. This new unit will play an important part in helping it stay at the forefront of treatment and diagnosis of conditions in elderly people, in particular those with dementia.”

CARU facilities also include a visual perception lab to help patients retain their independence. There are over 20 studies about to start or already underway in the unit. One of the major studies is looking at identifying predictors of dementia in Parkinson’s disease known as ICICLE PD. The five year study has been funded by the Parkinson’s Disease Society.

Web link to further information : CARU

A super-efficient system that has the potential to power, heat and cool homes across the UK is being developed at Newcastle University.

It works by burning vegetable oil to power a generator and provide electricity for the home.

The waste heat from this process is then used to provide heating and hot water and is also converted to cool a fridge.

At each step, the waste heat that is produced from engine gases and cooling is used elsewhere to recover the maximum amount of energy from the system.

In addition to this, the plant producing the fuel absorbs carbon whilst growing – resulting in near zero overall carbon emissions.

Using these three forms of energy for home use is known as micro-trigeneration and this new design will take the concept of combined heat and power to the next level.

Led by experts at the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research at Newcastle University and drawing on expertise from across the UK and China, the design also includes a unique energy storage system.

This allows home owners to store the extra electrical energy during ‘off-peak’ times – for example during the night – and efficiently release it when it is needed most.

Project leader Professor Tony Roskilly, of Newcastle University, explained: 'The supply of electricity, heating and cooling can be optimized by this one, efficient and sustainable system.

'The combination of the generator and energy storage provides new ways to respond to changing energy demand in the home.'

One of the potential oils to be used in the system comes from the seeds of the Croton Megalocarpus plant which grows in East Africa.

Croton Megalocarpus oil brings with it the advantage of being able to grow on land that is not suitable for traditional farming or food production – providing a fuel without sacrificing land for food crops.

Drawing on the modelling expertise of scientists at Ulster University, the team will build a full-scale prototype of the system.

The energy storage system, being developed with Leeds University, will supply electricity and cooling - helping to ensure that the correct form of energy is available at the right time and that the engine operates at its optimum efficiency.

Newcastle University’s Dr Yaodong Wang, said that this form of energy system for the home would be highly efficient.

'In the past, a significant barrier to the take-up of domestic scale micro-trigeneration systems has been the availability of the right energy at the right time,' he explained.

'A household has varying energy demands depending on the time of day and the time of year.

'By integrating new energy storage technology with the micro-trigeneration system we have the potential to overcome this barrier and make an impact on future domestic energy supply.'

The £1.1m project is a joint UK-China research programme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

New technology that can tell us the exact level of traffic fumes we are breathing in at any moment in time is being trialled in the North East.

The Mobile Environmental Sensing System Across a Grid Environment – MESSAGE – is a joint university/industry project led by Imperial College, London.

The technology produces real-time, second-by-second, metre-by-metre data on traffic pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and even noise.

Using a system dubbed ‘SMART dust’ technology - which has been developed by the University’s transport group - sensors called ‘motes’ are placed at regular intervals along busy roads where they continuously monitor the level of pollutants in the atmosphere. This data is then fed back and can be accessed in real-time via Google map.

Being trialled for the first time in Gateshead, the project has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Department for Transport. The aim is to understand the links between traffic flow – in particular congestion – and pollution levels.

But it also means that individuals – drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and any other road users – can potentially track the exact levels of pollution they are exposed to while going about their daily lives.

Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, said: ‘Common sense tells us that pollution levels will be higher during rush hour than at other times of day but we need to understand exactly how these levels vary – inside and outside the car, at different temperatures and humidities – before we can start to tackle the problem.

‘What we hope is that this data will be used to inform new traffic management plans that will improve urban air quality and transform the way we travel.’

Placed along some of the busiest roads in Gateshead, this is the first time a local authority has monitored vehicle pollution on such a large scale.

Researchers from the University’s Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) are asking rural businesses to help them assess the impact of the economic slowdown on the region.

A survey, being launched this week by the Northern Rural Network, invites any rural business - from sole traders, farms and start-ups to larger firms, consultants and long-established operations – to answer a range of questions about how issues such as the credit crunch, changes in fuel prices, the wet summer and the planning system are affecting their operations and plans for the future.

The results will inform work to tackle the challenges facing rural businesses and help promote their importance in the wider North East economy.

This survey builds on the success of the first North East Rural Business Survey, which was undertaken by the CRE in 1999, with input from almost 2,000 firms. It provided a unique insight into the character and resilience of rural businesses, and was particularly important in helping to shape the national and regional responses to Foot and Mouth disease.

For more information, visit the Centre for Rural Economy or contact the research team on 0191 222 6460.

It’s a tough life out at sea so you might think a small crustacean would be happy to take what it can get when it comes to finding a home - not the humble barnacle.

Researchers at Newcastle University have shown this tiny sea creature is super choosy about where it lives and, like ourselves, spends a lot of time picking the perfect environment to raise a family.

Co-funded by International Paints and the Natural Environment Research Council, the research – published this week in Biofouling Journal – has wide implications for the shipping industry.

Biofouling – the accumulation of marine life on ship’s hulls – increases drag on ships and costs the global industry an estimated 7.5 billion US dollars a year in wasted fuel.

It is hoped that by understanding how the barnacle – the single, biggest cause of the problem – selects a home, scientists will be able to create more effective bio-fouling paints thereby reducing pollution and fuel consumption.

Studying barnacles in their natural habitat, lead researcher Dr Gabrielle Prendergast used underwater cameras to capture how the creatures select a home.

Looking primarily at the importance of surface texture, the study showed the young barnacles – or larvae – were attracted to rougher surfaces that offered a micro-environment of grooves and crevices.

Smooth surfaces and surfaces that were too textured were both rejected by the larvae as were sites that were too over-crowded or, conversely, had too few barnacle ‘neighbours’.

'They proved to be very choosy customers,' explains Dr Prendergast.

'Barnacles have been studied widely under laboratory conditions but we wanted to see how they actually behave out at sea and what factors determine how they select a home.

'And what we found was that it’s not an easy decision for them. Like sponges and corals, barnacles stay in the same spot all their lives so it’s vital for the survival of the species that when it comes to choosing a home they get it right.'

Creating a range of different surface textures similar to different grades of sandpaper, the Newcastle-led team watched the young larvae – which are less than 1mm in size – roam the different surfaces in search of the perfect spot.

They found the barnacles tended to travel further and faster over unsuitable surfaces but attached quickly to surfaces that met their tough criteria.

Very smooth or very rough surfaces were rejected by the barnacles but micro-textures that were of a similar size to the larvae meant individuals could ‘slot’ themselves into the tiny dips and grooves and take advantage of the protection these offer.

The larvae were initially attracted to sites already colonised by fellow barnacles but sites that were too overcrowded were dismissed.

Newcastle University’s Dr Jeremy Thomason, who supervised the project, explained: 'Barnacles attach for life so they need to be close to other barnacles to reproduce but they also need to make sure they have enough space around them to grow without the risk of being out-competed and pushed out.

'The research suggests they pick surfaces with slight grooves and crevices in them which are easier to cling on to and offer some protection and a barrier against the currents.

'What is incredible is the life-long, complex decisions these microscopic larvae are making when they are just hours old.'

Dr David Williams, Principal Research Technologist at International Paint’s Marine and Protective Coatings Unit in Gateshead, added: 'Research like this is vital because it helps us to understand how the marine species interact in their natural environment and how this can be used to make improved, environmentally benign anti-fouling products.'

Biochemistry, genetics and computing science students have been working together to design a bacterium that glows red if pathogens are present and green in the presence of harmless bacteria.

The simplicity of the design – and the fact that it can be dried and broken down into spore form – means there is no need for sophisticated laboratories, so it can be used literally ‘in the field’.

The six students, whose backgrounds range from computer science and bioinformatics to microbiology and biochemistry, will be pitching their idea next week at an international competition in Boston, USA.

The International Genetically Engineered Machines contest (iGEM), which will take place this weekend (8-9 Nov), is run out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. The aim is to get together a team of students from a variety of backgrounds to design and genetically engineer a bacterium to do something novel and useful.

There are 84 teams registered for this year’s event and it is the first time Newcastle University has been represented. The team, which consists of both undergraduate and masters students, has received expert advice from as far afield as New Zealand.

‘This represents our first step into the hot new field of synthetic biology', said Dr Jennifer Hallinan, advisor and RCUK Academic Research Fellow in Complex Systems, School of Computing Science. ‘The students have found it quite challenging and it’s really taken them out of their comfort zone, but they’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.

‘It is a tremendously exciting opportunity, both for the students themselves, and for the University.’

Professor Neil Wipat and Dr Matthew Pocock, School of Computing Science, were also academic instructors for the team.

They also received advice and assistance from Newcastle University’s Institute for Cell and Molecular Bioscience, the NE Proteome Analysis Facility, and the Bioengineering Institute, Auckland University, New Zealand.

A lack of specific brain receptors has been linked with schizophrenia in new research by scientists at Newcastle University.

The team led by Dr Mark Cunningham in the Institute of Neuroscience has found that NMDA receptors are essential in modifying brain oscillations – electrical wave patterns – which are altered in patients with schizophrenia.

They now want to investigate whether optimising the function of the receptors, which are already know to be involved in making memories, could lead to a new way of treating the mental illness.

Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental health conditions in the UK and can cause a range of different psychological symptoms, including hallucinations and delusions. One in 100 people will experience at least one episode of acute schizophrenia during their lifetime and it affects men and women equally. While its exact cause is unknown, most experts believe that the condition is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Dr Mark Cunningham in the Institute of Neuroscience led the research which has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says: “We have shown that by selectively targeting receptors we can modify the dynamics of the brain. Our hope would be that in the long term this could lead to a method for actually improving brain function, not only for people with schizophrenia but potentially for many other brain conditions.

“We intend to continue looking in more detail at brain receptors so we can build on our understanding of how the brain works. This could open a new route for the design of drugs and a better understanding of how existing drugs work.”

To read the full press release

Scientists at Newcastle University have taken a step forward in our understanding of how the fundamental building blocks of life are put together.

In work published in Nature, the team led by Professor Nigel Robinson in the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, has revealed a mechanism that ensures the right metal goes to the right protein. Proteins are essential and involved in just about every process in living cells.

Life - microbe, plant or human - is a painstaking assembly of trillions of atoms. The atoms include metals such as copper and manganese which act as catalysts in proteins. The proteins wrap around the metal atoms.

The research team has shown that to ensure a copper and a manganese protein wrap around the correct metal atoms they do this in different parts of the cell, as different zones contain different metals. Therefore, which protein attaches to which metal is determined by where the folding action takes place in the cell.

Previously, a common view was that the right metals were simply those which were most attracted to the protein, but in this work that is not the case.

Professor Nigel Robinson who led the research at Newcastle University says: “This has taken us one step closer to understanding why metals and proteins assemble in the ways they do.”

“One motive behind the work is pure curiosity, but as so many proteins need metals this type of work has many potential uses - for example, in synthetic biology which is striving to produce green power from bacteria by using energy from sunlight to produce hydrogen gas, a process which needs nickel and iron.

“It may also help in diseases such as Alzheimers where there are unexplained links to proteins binding metals such as copper. There’s also application in controlling infections by Staphylococcus aureus; a bacterium which our bodies defences succeed - or sometimes fail - in killing by removing manganese and zinc from abscesses.”

The researchers have shown that the way the metals attach is identical for a protein that binds manganese to one that binds copper. In both cases the metals bind inside protein barrels with the same type of metal-attractions.

To read the full press release

Dr Jeff Yan and PhD student Ahmad Salah El Ahmad recently became the first people to crack the security behind the biggest names in global email services, exposing widespread vulnerability.

Yahoo and Microsoft believed they had systems in place that were secure enough to stop widespread abuse by spammers, but the scientists discovered that even the best on the market offered little more than a ‘false sense of security’.

But, unlike the hackers who exploit cracks in the system for their own gain, they used their knowledge for the greater good and took their findings straight to the companies.

The security system in question is CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart), designed to prevent automated hacker attacks where a computer is set up to constantly bombard an online system with junk.

Anyone surfing the web will have encountered a picture of wavy, distorted letters which have to be deciphered and typed into a box before accessing email accounts, joining social networking sites such as Facebook, or posting a comment on a website: this is a CAPTCHA scheme.

It is standard technology used to defend against malicious automated ‘bots’ - which can grab thousands of free email accounts in order to continuously spread junk emails or post adverts on blogs - and is used by Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and many other commercial websites.

However, in the last two year there has been a noticeable increase in spam originating from free email providers’ domains.

‘There were suggestions that cheap labour was behind this increase, and that CAPTCHA security was good enough, but low-paid people in developing countries were being hired to decode it manually,’ explained Dr Yan, who will be presenting his findings at the ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference next week (27-31 October). ‘Our research showed that computers, not people, were able to break this code much easier than previously thought.’

Dr Yan’s team’s methods were initially tested in 2007 on a high-profile CAPTCHA designed and widely deployed by Microsoft, with surprisingly good results. Microsoft has been using this CAPTCHA technology since 2002 for many of its online services, including Hotmail, MSN and Windows Live, and it has been fine-tuned by its designers over the years.

The latest CAPTCHA used by Yahoo, which was designed to be more hacker-proof, has also fallen foul of Dr Yan’s technique. ‘In our view, unfortunately all the different versions only provided a false sense of security as they were all open to our simple, low-cost segmentation attacks,’ he said.

One of the hardest parts of CAPTCHA to break is separating the letters and putting them in the right order, a process known as segmentation. Warped letters confuse machines, but humans are much better at visually removing extraneous lines.

Using an ordinary desktop computer, Dr Yan and Mr El Ahmad used a seven-step method – which took less than 80 milliseconds - to remove arcs in the Microsoft scheme that link letters and make them hard to isolate, and then identify all the characters in the right order. Key to their success was an innovative colour filling method, which proved extremely powerful when combined with more traditional vertical histogram analysis.

They could isolate each of the eight characters in over 90 per cent of the challenges generated by the Microsoft scheme and, by combining this with character recognition techniques, they were able to solve them over 60 per cent of the time. The aim of CAPTCHA is to not allow bots to be more successful than 1 in 10,000 attempts (a success rate of 0.01%).

These findings were not released until the companies concerned were able to address the issues raised by Dr Yan’s research.

‘It is not a trivial task to design a CAPTCHA scheme that is both usable and robust,’ said Dr Yan. His team’s critical analysis of the security of current schemes has contributed to an immediate improvement to existing systems and will also help to create a next generation of CAPTCHAs that are both secure and useable.

Early research suggests that computers are very good at recognising single characters, even if they are highly distorted. ‘Once the positions of the characters are known, breaking the scheme is purely a recognition problem, which is a trivial task with standard machine learning techniques such as neural networks,’ explained Dr Yan.

The best line of defence, says Dr Yan, appears to be letting characters touch or overlap with each other, juxtaposing characters in any direction to make it harder to tell real characters and other ‘noise’ apart, and randomising the width of those characters.

However, by making it harder for computers to solve it also becomes more difficult for humans to decipher. ‘It’s a question of striking the right balance,’ said Mr Yan. ‘I actually think the idea of CAPTCHA is a good one, but the devil is in the detail and this is where future work needs to focus.’

Dr Yan and Mr El Ahmad are currently designing a ‘tool box’, which will contain a collection of algorithms and attacks to allow companies to evaluate the strength of future CAPTCHAs.

Newcastle University scientists are receiving a major cash boost to develop the latest cancer imaging technologies.

Together with Durham University, cancer specialists will receive more than £2 million over the next five years as part of a nationwide initiative to establish the UK as a world leader in cancer imaging research.

The Newcastle/Durham collaboration is one of five cancer imaging research programmes being set up across the country.

Dr Ross Maxwell, of the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, whose research is funded by Cancer Research UK, is the lead scientist for the joint Newcastle University and Durham University cancer imaging programme grant.

He said: 'Investing in this important area is vital for improving many aspects of a cancer patient’s journey – from detection to treatment. We will use the new funding to help us develop new cancer drugs, in parallel with new scanning methods to track the way they work in the body.'

In Newcastle, the funding will be used to develop imaging techniques at Newcastle University’s Campus for Ageing and Vitality on the General Hospital site and at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care.

The £50 million initiative is being led by Cancer Research UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), who are investing up to £30 million and £15 million respectively.

In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC) will invest £3 million, and at least £1.3 million will come from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to help improve the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

The role of fathers has come under the spotlight in two studies published by Dr Daniel Nettle this week.

Rich men have more children was the finding in the first study in The American Naturalist. But Dr Nettle finds that it’s not necessarily that rich men have larger families, it’s that they’re more likely to find mates.

The study found that women are more likely to marry men who can provide for them and their children than penniless men. ‘It's not that if you're richer you'll have more children – if you're richer you're less likely to be childless,’ he says.

Meanwhile, dads who play an active part in their children’s upbringing help them to be more intelligent and successful was the finding of a second study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour.

A 50-year study of 17,000 people born in the same week in 1958 found those with more hands-on dads went on to thrive in later life. Those children tended to have a greater IQ and as adults they were more likely to have a higher social status.

Dr Nettle who is in the Institute of Neuroscience, is now turning the attention on grandmothers and their role in the family. He is looking for 100 families to come forward to help with a survey for new research examining whether mum’s mum (maternal grandmother) and dad’s mum (paternal grandmother) have different attitudes towards how children should be raised.

This will lead to research into whether family conflict tends to follow 'genetic' lines, i.e. does mum see more eye-to-eye own with her own mum than her mother-in-law? Does dad's mum side with dad?

To take part in the research all four family members (mum, dad, mum's mum, and dad's mum) will need to fill in a survey and to take part they need to email their name and postal address to daniel.nettle@ncl.ac.uk

Related news articles:

Children who spend time with their fathers have a higher IQ, Telegraph

In the language of love, money talks, New Scientist

Wind farms pose less of a threat to farmland birds than previously feared, researchers at Newcastle University have found.

The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, helps resolve a potentially major environmental conflict: how to meet renewable energy targets at the same time as reversing dramatic declines in biodiversity on European farmland.

Dr Mark Whittingham and colleagues from Newcastle University conducted bird surveys on arable farmland around two wind farms in the East Anglian fens.

They recorded almost 3,000 birds from 23 different species, including five red-listed species of high conservation concern – the yellowhammer, the Eurasian tree sparrow, the corn bunting, Eurasian skylark and the common reed bunting.

They found the wind turbines had no effect on the distribution of seed-eating birds, corvids (the crow family), gamebirds and Eurasian skylarks. Common pheasants – the largest and least manoeuvrable species – were the only birds whose distribution was affected by the turbines.

Dr Whittingham explains: 'This is the first evidence suggesting that the present and future location of large numbers of wind turbines on European farmland is unlikely to have detrimental effects on farmland birds.

'This should be welcome news for nature conservationists, wind energy companies and policy makers.

'With large numbers of wind farms needing to be built on lowland areas, the cumulative impacts on farmland bird species has the potential to be a significant constraint to development.'

The results are important because the European Commission has set a target of generating 20% of EU energy from renewable sources by 2020.

As agriculture is the major land use in the EU, more wind turbines will need to be built on farmland. At the same time, the EU is spending billions of Euros on agri-environment schemes, whose major goal is to boost biodiversity on farmland.

If wind turbines harm farmland birds, the two environmental policies would be difficult to reconcile.

Previous studies by other researchers have concentrated on the impact of wind turbines on waterbirds and birds of prey.

Dr Whittingham adds: 'Much terrestrial research into the effects of wind turbines on birds has focused on geese, waders and raptors, whose populations are highest in upland and coastal areas.

'There is increasing conservation concern about the impact of wind farms on these species in these areas, so applications to build new turbines are increasingly focusing on other sites, especially lowland farmland in central and eastern England.'

As the study was conducted during the winter, further studies are needed on the impact of wind turbines on farmland birds during the breeding season.

An automated robotic cleaning system that removes marine growth from the hull of a ship is being pioneered at Newcastle University.

Designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the world’s shipping industry, the robot offers a solution to spiralling fuel costs and marine related pollution while removing harmful, non-indigenous species that could be transferred to local waters.

Operating in a similar way to the automatic carpet cleaner, the robot has been developed out of an EU-funded project called HISMAR (Hull Identification System for Marine Autonomous Robotics) and is able to navigate its own way across the ship’s hull.

First a map of the hull is automatically charted, recording the location of every weld, thickness change, rivet and indentation on the ship’s surface.

The robot is magnetically attached to the ship’s side and sent off on its journey of the hull, following a planned route and cleaning as it goes.

Adjustable jets of pressurised sea water blast the marine growth off the surface of the ship which is then sucked up into the main chamber.

Here, 150 litres of water a minute is filtered and the bio-fouling removed and rendered harmless to the local environment.

In this way, the ship’s robotic ‘vacuum’ can continuously roam the ship’s hull, preventing the build up of slime and allowing it to travel through the water efficiently by cutting down on drag.

This significantly reduces fuel consumption and also pollution such as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Newcastle University’s Professor Tony Roskilly, leading the project, said: 'Marine growth on ships is a huge environmental and financial problem for the marine industry and HISMAR offers a unique solution to both of these – and more.

'What we have created is a system that works totally independently – in or out of the water – and not only keeps the ship clean but also feeds back vital information about the hull’s condition.

'Because the map it follows is so detailed, if there is a change to its path caused by corrosion or a crack in the steel then it feeds this information back. This means it can be used as an additional check on the seaworthiness of the ship’s hull or highlight potential problems.

'And because the drive module and navigational system are separate to the cleaning tools we hope that ultimately we will be able to fit it with different tools to carry out different tasks – such as stripping and painting the hull.'

Led by Newcastle University, the international team of experts will present a prototype of the robot at the largest marine maintenance fair in the world - Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology in Hamburg - on September 23rd.

Until the beginning of this year, ships used antifouling paints to protect them from the corrosive environment, with Tributyltin (TBT) added as a biocide to also prevent marine growth.

However, it was found to contaminate the surrounding water – having a serious detrimental impact on other marine life - and this summer it became illegal worldwide to use TBT antifouling coatings.

Newcastle University’s Jonathan Heslop, a researcher on the project, explains: 'All other developed cleaning or inspection systems currently available are remotely controlled during their operation, requiring highly skilled and experienced operators to effectively clean the hull, while the ship is out of operation and usually out of the water.

'The advantage of the HISMAR robot is that it is an autonomous system so it can continue cleaning with the ship remaining in service – feeding back hull information as it does so – resulting in very little build up of slime, reduced fuel costs and much less pollution.'

The HISMAR robot uses a novel optical dead-reckoning system in conjunction with a magnetic system to identify the location of surface and sub-surface features to build up a detailed map of the ship’s hull. It is this navigation system which allows the robot to operate above and below the waterline whilst the ship is in port or at anchor.

Parents are vastly overestimating the amount of time their children spend exercising, a new study has shown.

The research led by Dr Ashley Adamson at Newcastle University and Professor John Reilly at the University of Glasgow shows that on average children took six times less exercise than national data suggests.

This means parents are claiming their children take more than two hours of exercise a day while the actual figure is less than 30 minutes for both boys and girls.

The study, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, followed 130 children aged six and seven. The amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity the children undertook in seven days was estimated using a device called an accelerometer, which was attached to their belts. The results were compared with information supplied by their parents for the Health Survey for England - the questionnaire by which estimates of the nation's exercise habits are calculated.

The accelerometer readings showed that the exercise rate was actually 24 minutes a day, with boys managing 26 minutes and girls 22.

The authors say that these findings back up national figures, which show an increase in car journeys children take, as well as their expanding girth. They are calling for better ways of measuring physical activity, particularly if there are to be improvements in obesity and related disorders.

New research by Newcastle University into commuting from Berwick upon Tweed shows that it’s not environmental concerns that decide people’s choice of transport.

Those questioned as part of the study by Dr Jane Atterton, of the University’s Centre for Rural Economy, say they choose the train because it’s convenient, quicker, less tiring and not as stressful as driving and makes more economic sense than travelling by car (particularly due to steady increases in fuel prices).

‘People choose to live in Berwick because of the high quality of life, the local scenery, coastline and landscape and the links to major transport routes,’ said Dr Atterton. ‘However, they are forced to find work in either Newcastle or Edinburgh due to a limited market locally for well-paid jobs, particularly in skilled and professional occupations.

‘Many commuters feel that encouraging inward investment should be a priority in future to help bring more of these types of jobs to the town. The disadvantages of commuting, particularly in terms of money and time, mean that many people who are currently travelling long distances to work would consider changing their job to work locally instead, if better opportunities were available.’

The need to commute to find work also takes its toll on the voluntary sector, as over half of those questioned spend no time participating in voluntary or community work, with 72% saying it was the length of their commute which made it difficult to fully take part in community life.

There was a relatively even split between those who wanted Berwick to develop stronger links with Edinburgh or Newcastle, with some also believing that maintaining strong ties with both of its city neighbours would be more beneficial for the town than favouring one over the other.

Researchers from Newcastle and Liverpool Universities found that women chose different partners after taking the Pill.

Dr Craig Roberts, now at the University of Liverpool, along with Professor Morris Gosling and Professor Marion Petrie from Newcastle University, analysed how the contraceptive pill affects odour preferences.

Women are thought to subconsciously react to a man's smell and will choose a partner with dissimilar genes to themselves. But the study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggested the Pill disrupted this process.

One hundred women were asked to indicate their preferences on six male body odour samples, drawn from 97 volunteer samples, before and after starting to use the contraceptive pill. They found that preferences of women who began using the Pill shifted towards men with genetically similar odours.

Disturbing a woman’s instinctive attraction to genetically different men could result in difficulties when trying to conceive, an increased risk of miscarriage and long intervals between pregnancies. Passing on a lack of diverse genes to a child could also weaken their immune system.

Urban transport options need to steer away from a ‘one size fits all approach’ in order to better serve our ageing population, according to research by Newcastle University.

Older people are among the most socially excluded members of society and access to transport is a key factor.

Dr Jenny Brake will be presenting her findings at the Urban Transport Conference in Malta today (1 September).

She has found that bookable transport services such as dedicated taxis and designated ‘shopping buses’ operating in the North East are heading in the right direction, but better communication is required to ensure they are reaching those most in need.

‘We often speak about older people being isolated from public transport if they live in rural areas, but it can be just as much of a problem in the city. If you can’t physically get to your local bus stop then it doesn’t matter how good the service is,’ explained Dr Brake.

This latest research shows that the current generation of older people has enjoyed high car ownership, resulting in many people who have no idea how to access public transport, particularly bus services, or are unaware of alternatives such as car sharing clubs.

Dr Brake suggests that as high profile information campaigns about public transport are not a priority in the UK, it can be difficult to overcome this problem. ‘We’ve got two key generations – the baby boomers and today’s teenagers – who see public transport as a second class means of getting around,’ she said. ‘Unless something is done to address these attitudes, bus passenger numbers will continue to fall and we’ll see a further decline in investment in those services.’

Her research suggests that although niche travel schemes designed for older people are not suitable for everyone, it’s the variety of options available that is important. However, the more flexible the service, the less visible it often is, due to the way these services are operated and concerns that demand could outstrip supply.

‘The main objective of a local authority is to get as many people as possible on conventional public transport as this is the cheapest option and keeps commercial operators in business,’ said Dr Brake. ‘However, different people have different needs and it is increasingly recognised that the one-size fits all approach just doesn’t work.

‘We should be asking people what they need. This will vary from county to county, between cities and even within cities. Local authorities and operators can then decide how best to use their resources.’

One of Dr Brake’s concerns about the take-up of these alternative transport options is that often the solutions provided as a result of consultation are simply not advertised, so people are left thinking that nothing has changed because no one has told them about it.

In the North East, schemes such as TaxiCard (launching at the end of September) and Hop to the Shops, which has been running since the beginning of last year, are helping to fill the gap in public transport provision for older people who do not have access to a car and need very good customer care.

Run by Community Transport Newcastle and supported by Nexus, Hop to the Shops offers a door-to-door service to major shopping centres for older people, mainly from residential homes.

Door-to-door services such as TaxiCard and LinkUp, which are booked in advance, are also ideal for older people who are unable to get around on their own.

‘It’s not just about cost as many older people are more than willing to pay towards transport that meets their needs - but they do need more practical assistance,’ said Dr Brake. ‘It’s also a social occasion for people who live on their own.’

Conservation zones are in the wrong place to protect vulnerable coral reefs from the effects of global warming, an international team of scientists warned today.

Now the team – led jointly by Newcastle University and the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York – say that urgent action is needed to prevent the collapse of this important marine ecosystem.

The research, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, is the largest study of its kind to have been carried out, covering 66 sites across seven countries and spanning over a decade in the Indian Ocean.

Current protection zones – or ‘No-take areas’ (NTAs) – were set up to protect fish in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before climate change was a major issue.

The team – which comprises of experts from the UK, Australia, the US, Sweden and France – found the small-scale zones were not working to protect coral reefs against the effects of climate change.

They conclude that while the existing zones should not be removed, new areas are needed in the right place to protect corals against the effects of rising temperatures.

And they say that managing the system as a whole is crucial if coral reef communities are to have any hope of surviving the effects of global warming.

Lead researcher Nick Graham, of Newcastle University’s School of Marine Science and Technology, said: 'We need a whole new approach – and we need to act now.

'Our research shows that many of the world’s existing no-take areas are in the wrong place.

'New protected zones are needed that focus on areas identified as escaping or recovering well from climate change impacts. But a major focus needs to be shifted towards increasing the resilience of the system as a whole – that means reducing as many other locally derived threats as possible.

'Coral dies when it is put under stress so what we need to be doing is reducing the direct human impact – such as over-fishing, pollution and sedimentation – across the whole area.

'By removing all these other stresses we are giving the coral the best chance of surviving and recovering from any changes in temperature that may occur as a result of global warming.'

Previous work by the team focused on the long-term impact of the 1998 event where global warming caused Indian Ocean surface temperatures to increase to unprecedented and sustained levels, killing off (or ‘bleaching’) more than 90 per cent of the inner Seychelles coral.

Although many areas are showing signs of long-term degradation, Mr Graham said it was positive to see that some locations either escaped the impact or have recovered.

'This provides the key to conserving coral reefs in the face of climate change,' he says. 'We are not suggesting that we scrap the existing NTAs – in terms of protecting fish stocks they have been quite successful.

'But they are not effective against global warming and in order to ensure the long-term survival of this rich marine community that is what we need to address.'

Just an extra 45 minute walk a day can help people control Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study at Newcastle University.

Dr Michael Trenell and Prof Roy Taylor, who led the research, showed that people with Type 2 diabetes who walk regularly can keep some of the effects of the disease at bay.

Today, almost 5 per cent of the UK population - over 2.3 million people - are classified as having diabetes. Over 90 per cent is Type 2 diabetes.

Dr Trenell says, “We found that people who walked for an extra 45 minutes a day became better at burning fat. Over a period of weeks this helped control their blood glucose levels.

"People often find the thought of going to the gym quite daunting, but what we’ve found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking. In our study many people got off the bus a few stops earlier and some took a walk at lunchtime.

In the study, published in the Journal Diabetes Care, ten people with Type 2 diabetes were paired with a control group of people of a similar height, weight and age who did not have diabetes. They were each given a pedometer and asked to walk over 10,000 steps a day.

Using an advanced MRI scanner the team were able to show how the muscles were processing energy inside the mitochondria – the “engines” of the cell.

The participants underwent an MRI scan at Newcastle University before they took part in the trial to see how efficiently the mitochondria were processing the energy in their leg muscles. They had further MRI scans after two weeks and eight weeks of extra walking.

Results showed that there were no major problems with the mitochondria for people with Type 2 diabetes, but walking 45 minutes extra per day helped them burn about 20% more fat – increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control the diabetes.

Dr Trenell explains, “We were able to show that people with Type 2 diabetes did not have any basic problems with the mitochondria but by becoming more active it actually helped the mitochondria to become more efficient.”

Dr Iain Frame, Director of Research at Diabetes UK, said: “Dr Trenell’s findings prove that even gentle physical activity is vital in managing Type 2 diabetes. Effectively controlling the condition reduces the risk of developing serious long-term complications and will improve well-being. It is fantastic to see Diabetes UK-funded research translating into practical advice for people with diabetes."

Increased Daily Walking Improves Lipid Oxidation Without Changes in Mitochondrial Function in Type 2 Diabetes. Michael I Trenell PhD, Keren G. Hollingsworth PhD, Ee Lin Lim MRCP, Roy Taylor MD. Published in Diabetes Care on the 28th July 2008.

Web links to further information:

Research paper, from Diabetes Care website

Press release (giving more detail)

The higher a horse can tuck up its front legs the higher its price on the international market, scientists at Newcastle University have revealed.

Leading bio-engineer Dr Sian Lawson has shown that the sale price of a horse is directly linked to how high the animal can tuck its front hoof into its shoulder when it leaps over a fence.

This contradicts previous assumptions that the back leg is the most important feature in a prime show-jumper.

Dubbed the ‘forelimb tuck’, the tuck-up distance can be measured in a three-year-old horse and used to determine how much it is worth.

In the UK, horses are a £3.8bn industry. With champion horses carrying a price tag of several million pounds, Dr Lawson said the results could have major implications for the world of show-jumping.

'This is not the result I was expecting at all,' says Dr Lawson, herself a former professional show-jumper. It has always been assumed that the back leg is the most important feature in a show-jumper.

'The height at which a horse can raise its back leg is innate – that is, it’s something the horse is born with. Just like some people can do the splits and others can’t, so some horses are very flexible and can bring their back legs up much higher than others.

'Conversely, the front leg is not thought to be genetically linked and is very trainable. This means most horses can be trained to develop a good ‘forelimb tuck’.

'What this research has shown is that the trainer is as important as the horse.'

The horses used in the study - which was presented at the Sixth International Conference on Equine Locomotion in Cabourg - were all aged between three and five years old and had sold for between 5,000 and 60,000 Euros.

Before making a purchase, trainers often watch videos of the young horses in action and make a decision based on a number of factors including pedigree, temperament, jumping ability, age, sex and height.

Dr Lawson used these same videos for her research, mapping the movement of the horse and charting it against sale price.

And she found that in every case the forelimb action correlated with sale price. No other attribute – other than age and height – had a strong bearing on the final price of the horse.

Dr Lawson says the next step is to chart the progress of these young horses and see if the forelimb tuck can be used to predict the price of the horse when it reaches its peak – and ultimately its potential as a top show-jumper.

Dr Lawson explains: 'Predicting the worth of a horse at such a young age is very difficult and is often based on the animal’s performance over a single day. This is very subjective and has obvious limitations.

'What this study shows is that sale price can be predicted from the forelimb tuck and this gives trainers a quantifiable parameter to work with when viewing horses.'

Seven couples are expecting babies after receiving reduced cost IVF in a world-first scheme in Newcastle.

They underwent the IVF treatment at Newcastle's Fertility Centre at Life in return for donating some eggs for research.

They came forward after the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI), a collaboration involving Newcastle University, received final approval and funding for the scheme known as egg sharing for research.

Under the scheme, women receive about half of the cost of their IVF treatment, £1500, in return for the donation of half their eggs.

One hundred women came forward after the scheme was launched in Newcastle in September last year and, after testing and counseling, twenty were found to be suitable.

Twelve of those decided to take part in the scheme and seven couples are expecting babies in the autumn, including one set of twins.

Scientists at NESCI believe the scheme will lead to an increase in the number of eggs for research which could lead to faster progress in stem cell therapies. The project continues for another year with opportunities for more women to take part.

Professor Alison Murdoch who is leading the project at NESCI, says: "We’re delighted that this scheme has enabled so many couples to have a family from IVF treatment.

We find that couples coming forward are really considering what it means and whether it’s the right option for them. Their choice to take part in the egg sharing scheme means that important research is able to progress and we hope these successes will encourage other people to come forward.”

People interested in finding out more about the egg sharing scheme should call 0191 282 5000 and leave a name, address and number or download more information and a form at www.nesci.ac.uk

Newcastle University researchers predict that when the next Ice Age occurs, it will be driven as much by the sun as ice.

The paper ‘Regulation of the monsoon climate by two different orbital rhythms and forcing mechanisms’ was recently published in Geology, the journal from the Geological Society of America.

‘Glacier melt does not rule everything, as is sometimes mistakenly believed,’ explained Takeshi Nakagawa, Reader in Quaternary Sciences, who led the research. ‘The sun also plays an equally important role, especially in terms of rainfall.’

Dr Nakagawa believes that past research has not offered a comprehensive theory to explain long-term changes in temperature and rainfall. This new research argues that the glacial-interglacial cycle and the monsoon cycle actually operate independently of each other.

‘The question of whether past glacial ages were wetter or dryer actually does not make sense - although it is often asked,’ he said. ‘Hot-cold conditions are independent from wet-dry ones in that they oscillate in different cycles.’

Glacial ages (periods of globally low temperatures and larger volumes of polar ice) typically recur at 100,000 year intervals. By contrast, extreme monsoon conditions operate on a 23,000 year cycle, which researchers show also coincides with the most noticeable changes in the sun’s intensity.

‘The East Asian monsoon is responsible for transferring huge amounts of heat and moisture between the land and the adjacent ocean,’ said Dr Nakagawa. ‘Significant changes in its ability to do this will have a direct effect on the global climate.

‘Ice Age conditions, which will certainly come about sooner or later, will not be due to a single cause of major climatic shift, and if we do not take this on board then our view of our planet’s future will be based on inaccurate assumptions.’

The researchers reconstructed the climate over the past 450,000 years using fossilised pollen records from Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest and oldest lake.

Pollen samples can indicate the changes in the type of vegetation over time, which in turn indicates changes in the climate. By comparing information from this material with statistics from the present day, the researchers were able to determine the change in temperature and precipitation over time.

‘Land is more sensitive to heat from the sun than neighbouring oceans, and the contrast between the two causes the monsoon wind,’ explained Dr Nakagawa. ‘This is the main reason why we believe the monsoon is largely driven by changes in solar activity.’

An intensified monsoon can bring about El-Nino type conditions in the oceans, which has immediate impact on the climate in the rest of the world. By comparison, ice does not create any 'contrast' between land and ocean, as glacial conditions make both land and ocean uniformly cold. The researchers conclude that, as a result, the glacial-interglacial cycle is unable to regulate monsoon wind and rainfall.

Dr Nakagawa, of the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, worked with colleagues from Japan and Germany to conduct the research.

Staff, students and graduates are working with many different types of company in the region to help them develop new technologies and become more competitive.

Newcastle University's leading role in the Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP) and the Collaborative Innovation Partnership (CIP) was highlighted in a feature in The Journal newspaper on 12 June, 2008.

One of the region's fastest growing companies, Wellstream, has teamed up with researchers from the School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering to develop flexible pipes for deep water applications in the oil and gas industry.

Wellstream is among a number of companies involved in the KTP, which matches a company's needs to expertise at one or more of the region's five universities.

The CIP is a sister programme to the KTP, operated for smaller companies. It is the first programme of its type in the country.

In each partnership an associate, usually a post-graduate researcher or graduate, works with a company for up to two years on a project which is core to its strategic development.

Professor George Kotsikas, the leading researcher at Newcastle University in the Wellstream KTP, says in The Journal article: 'In today's fast changing, competitive business environment, a core strategic need of UK manufacturing companies is the ability to identify innovative solutions and deliver innovative products to market to help the business grow.'

Contact: Fiona McCusker, Knowledge Transfer Co-ordinator, ext 5911, fiona.mccusker@ncl.ac.uk

Web links to further information:

Feature in The Journal newspaper

Newcastle KTP website

An inventive way of improving password security for laptops and handheld devices such as iPhones is going on show in London at the end of the month (Monday 30th June).

Dr Jeff Yan, a computer science lecturer, has been invited to attend the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, which highlights the best of UK science, engineering and technology.

Along with his PhD student Paul Dunphy, Dr Yan developed the emerging Draw a Secret (DAS) technology, a graphical password scheme where users draw their secret password as a free-form image on a grid.

Using their software - Background Draw a Secret (or BDAS) – a person draws their graphical password onto a background image that is superimposed over a blank grid.

This helps people remember where to start and finish and also encourages them to create passwords considerably more secure than ordinary textual passwords.

More complicated password images e.g. with a larger stroke count or length, that are less symmetrical and do not start in the centre are much harder for people or automated hacker programs to guess.

‘In essence, this is a very simple idea as it’s intuitive,’ said Mr Yan. ‘It may take longer to create the password initially but it’s easier to remember and more secure as a result.

‘Most of us have forgotten a pin number or a password at least once, which is why we tend to make them so easy to guess,’ he added. ‘However, the human mind has a much greater capacity for remembering images, and it’s certainly true that a picture is worth a thousand words in this instance.’

Twenty three interactive exhibits will be on show at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition and more than 4,000 people are expected attend between Monday 30 June and Thursday 3 July 2008.

Further information can be found at www.summerscience.org.uk

Researchers at Newcastle University suggest a much more positive approach is required towards the UK’s ageing rural population.

The authors of the report ‘Planning for the Ageing Countryside in Britain and Japan: City Regions and the Mobility of Older People’ are presenting their findings next month at the World Congress of Rural Sociology in Korea (7-11 July).

They state that the notion of ‘retirement to the countryside’ is outdated, as many older people moving to these areas intend to remain economically and socially active. As a result, the government needs a major shift in its approach to older people to draw on the resources they have to offer and ‘age-proof’ our future better in the process.

Within the next 20 years, it is predicted that the number of over 75-year-olds living in England’s rural areas will rise by around 80%.

‘The time has come for rural areas to be at the forefront of developing innovative ways of tapping into the benefits offered by the demographic ageing process, and rural policymakers need to grasp this opportunity,’ said Dr Kayo Murakami, of Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy, who led the research.

However, in order for the UK’s rural economy to reach its full potential, the researchers say that policymakers and analysts need to understand the broader impacts of ageing and work towards breaking down negative, stereotypical assumptions about older people.

‘A change in society’s attitude towards older people is long over-due,’ said Dr Murakami. ‘Common stereotypes of older people as dependent and in need, which are deeply rooted, need to be challenged and broken down.

‘These stereotypes limit older people’s lives and the contribution they can make to society. It is becoming less and less true that people reach retirement age and become a burden. For most of us, longevity means additional years of active life, not dependency.’

The report says older people who are able to contribute fully to society can be a positive, driving force for local economies. They cite ways the government can encourage more active participation, such as schemes in which older people draw on their experience to provide mentoring support for young business owners.

The researchers add that policymakers should be encouraged to adopt a broader approach which reaches beyond pensions and care issues, to address the economic, social and civic aspects of ageing. They also need to make sure they involve older people in the design of policies and local service delivery.

Along with international colleagues, Newcastle University researchers are currently exploring the wider effects of demographic ageing on rural areas in the UK, Japan and the US.

‘Demographic ageing will bring both challenges and opportunities for society in the coming years,’ said Dr Jane Atterton, one of the study’s authors. ‘This ‘greying countryside’ effect will have a profound and wide-ranging impact on both the social fabric and the economy.

‘Rural England is at the cutting edge of the trend towards an ageing population which is going to happen everywhere, and this is our chance to adopt the right approach now, before it’s too late.

‘There will be increased pressure on already over-stretched health and care services and a growing need to provide support for those older people who are isolated or have limited finances. It is important that service providers in rural areas continue to offer the full range of support services for those older people in need, particularly for those who no longer have family members living locally.

‘However, on the flip side, many older people are wealthier, healthier and more active than their predecessors. Upon reaching retirement, many people have built up considerable economic and social resources that they can contribute to where they live.’

Evidence suggests that older people are more successful in starting a business than their younger counterparts, and with higher employment rates for older age groups, rural areas seem to be taking the lead in reversing the national trend towards early retirement.

These locations offer a number of different and flexible employment options for older people, including self-employment, part-time, temporary or seasonal work and home working.

Many older people also wish to continue learning after they have left work and they also appear to be increasingly discerning consumers who no longer wish to save for a rainy day or to provide an inheritance for their family. They are also active in voluntary, community and social enterprise activities, which all contribute to the ‘social capital’ of rural communities.

The Newcastle University study, which compared how Japan and the UK differ in their approach to planning for an ageing rural population, showed marked differences between the two countries.

Both countries are wealthy, densely-populated island nations facing demographic transition, but in Japan, concerted efforts to put older people at the heart of community development is creating a more welcoming and accessible community for everyone.

Advances in medicine, education, diet, living conditions and material wealth throughout the last century have all contributed to increased longevity, lower mortality and a falling birth rate among the most advanced societies.

Across the globe, 500 million people are aged 65 and over, accounting for 8% of the world’s population. By 2030, it is estimated there will be more than one billion over 65s - 13% of the total population.

The full report: Murakami, K., Atterton, J. and Gilroy, R. (2008) Planning for the Ageing Countryside in Britain and Japan: City-Regions and the Mobility of Older People, Research Report to the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is available online:

Planning for the Ageing Countryside in Britain and Japan: City-Regions and the Mobility of Older People

At a recent event at HM Treasury, run by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), a wide range of research and innovation at the University was highlighted for its economic and social impact.

Highlights from Newcastle University included:

* A discovery by Prof Jeff Errington of new targets for antibiotics which led to the establishment of Prolysis, a company which is developing new antibiotics that are effective against resistant ‘superbugs’. Prof Errington said: ‘We're developing new antibiotics that could work against resistant 'superbugs' such as MRSA and C dificile. We're examining how cells divide and from that knowledge we can gain a better understanding of how to develop new antibiotics to control the spread of infection.’

* Prof Tom Kirkwood’s research exploring the complex factors that underpin the ageing process, with the aim of ensuring lifelong health for all of us.

* Orla, a company founded by Prof Jeremy Lakey, for the development of diagnostic molecular components for use in disease diagnosis and stem cell research.

Participants in the event included researchers from Newcastle and other bioscientists being highlighted for their contributions, the Minister of State for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson MP, industry leaders, policy makers and leading academics.

For further information, please see our press release

A new study by Newcastle University proves that organic farmers who let their cows graze as nature intended are producing better quality milk.

The Nafferton Ecological Farming Group study found that grazing cows on organic farms in the UK produce milk which contains significantly higher beneficial fatty acids, antioxidants and vitamins than their conventional ‘high input’ counterparts.

During the summer months, one of the beneficial fats in particular – conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA9 – was found to be 60% higher.

The results of this study into UK dairy production are published online in the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture.

‘We have known for some time that what cows are fed has a big influence on milk quality,’ explained Gillian Butler, livestock project manager for the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group at Newcastle University, who led the study. ‘What is different about this research is it clearly shows that on organic farms, letting cows graze naturally, using forage-based diet, is the most important reason for the differences in the composition between organic and conventional milk.

‘We’ve shown that significant seasonal differences exist, with nutritionally desirable fatty acids and antioxidants being highest during the summer, when the cows are eating fresh grass and clover.

‘As a result, our future research is focusing on how to improve the nutritional composition of milk during the winter, when cows are kept indoors and fed mainly on conserved forage.’

The study, which involved Newcastle scientists working with the Danish Institute for Agricultural Science, is part of the ongoing cross-European Quality Low Input Food project into animal health and welfare, milk quality and working towards minimising the use of antibiotics in dairy production.

‘This paper is a major milestone in the project and clearly shows that if you manage livestock naturally then it’s a win-win situation for both us and them,’ said Professor Carlo Leifert, project co-ordinator.

The scientists also discovered interesting results from a group of low-input farms in Wales, which are not certified organic but use very similar production methods to organic farms (the main difference was the use of some mineral fertiliser and shorter withdrawal periods after antibiotic use).

To reduce costs, these farmers calved all their cows in spring and grazed them throughout lactation, from March until November, resulting in milk being produced on an almost 100% fresh grass diet.

Milk from these non-organic farms also had significantly higher levels of nutritionally desirable fatty acids and antioxidants, which was a direct result of the extensive outdoor rearing and fresh forage intake.

‘These New-Zealand type dairy systems are not common in the UK, as weather conditions in many areas of the country make it unworkable,’ explained Mrs Butler. ‘Therefore, milk from these farms is not available to the public as it’s mixed in with milk from conventional systems during processing.

‘However, including these extremely extensive systems allowed us to clearly link the difference in milk quality to the dairy cows’ diets.’

Gordon Tweddle, of Acorn Dairy in County Durham, is a local supplier of organic milk. ‘We have believed for some time that organic milk is better for us and our customers tell us it tastes better,’ he said. ‘It is satisfying to have the scientific explanation as to why it is also nutritionally better.’

This current research confirms previous studies in the UK, which reported higher concentrations of omega 3 fatty acids in milk from organic production systems than conventional ones.

CLA, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and carotenoids have all been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. CLA is hugely popular in the US, where it is marketed as a nutritional supplement. However, synthetic supplements often contain compounds with a different chemical composition (isomer balance) than those occurring naturally in milk, resulting in an equal dose of both ‘good’ (i.e. CLA9, omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin E and carotenoids) and ‘less desirable’ fatty acids (i.e. omega-6 fatty acids and CLA10).

‘Switching to organic milk provides an alternative, natural way to increase our intake of nutritionally desirable fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants without increasing our intake of less desirable fatty acids and synthetic forms of vitamin E,’ said Mrs Butler. ‘In organic milk, the omega-3 levels increase but the omega-6 does not, which helps to improve the crucial ratio between the two.’

The study involved 25 farms across the UK in two contrasting areas of the UK – South Wales and the North East. The scientists looked at three different farming systems: conventional high input, organically certified, and non-organic sustainable (low-input).

The Nafferton Ecological Farming Group at Newcastle University collected 109 milk samples from 25 commercial farms categorised into the three different production systems: conventional high input; organically certified low input; and non-organic, low input. These samples were taken in August and October in 2004 and January, March and May the following year.

The group investigated the effects of seasonal and indoor/outdoor feeding differences on the milk’s fatty acid profile, and also compared individual carotenoids, stereo-isomers of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) or isomers of CLA. The higher levels of nutritionally desirable fatty acids found in the organic milk were CLA9, omega-3 and linolenic acid and the antioxidants/vitamins were vitamin E and carotenoids. The lower levels of undesirable fatty acids were omega-6 and CLA10.

MPs have overwhelmingly backed new laws allowing the use of part-human, part-animal embryos for stem cell research.

A cross-party attempt to ban hybrid human animal embryos was defeated on a free vote, by 336 to 176 in the House of Commons this week.

The votes followed two debates in the committee stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, aimed at updating laws from 1990 in line with scientific advances.

Dr Lyle Armstrong and a team at Newcastle University based at the Centre for Life are carrying out the research on hybrid embryos after being awarded an HFEA licence under the law as it stands.

Web links to further information:

Press release: Critics urged to 'be rational' in embryo debate

An electronic vote capture and counting system, designed to overcome the problems which have dogged computerised voting systems throughout the world, was given its first major test at the University on Tuesday, 13 May.

The 'Pret a Voter' system was invented by Professor Peter Ryan, of the School of Computing Science, and implemented by a team of computer scientists at Newcastle and Surrey Universities. It is hoped that that once the system is tried and tested it could attract global interest.

The designers say that Pret a Voter is far less prone to error, hacking and corruption than either manual counting or the electronic systems which have been tried before - notably the touch screen voting machines in the US and pilot schemes run in the UK. In addition, individuals can check that their votes have been cast and auditors can easily verify that voting has been fair and error-free.

Many countries have tried electronic voting systems, with little success. Last year, the Electoral Commission said that web and phone voting experiments in the UK should be stopped following widespread concern over security of pilot schemes run during the May 2007 elections.

The trial run, supported by the Electoral Reform Services (ERS) and Newcastle University’s Centre for Software Reliability and School of Computing Science, took place in the King's Road Centre at Newcastle University.

The 'candidates' were three charities, each trying to secure students' votes. At the end of the day, the charity with the most votes received a pot of cash of about £1,000 donated by the sponsors, plus further donations by voters.

Student voters were given a ballot paper and asked to draw a cross by a candidate (in this case, a charity) in the normal way. However, the positions of the candidates on each ballot form were selected at random. After the cross had been drawn, the student tore off the list of candidates, so that it was impossible to tell for whom the vote had been cast. The strip of paper with the cross was then scanned in to a computer, along with a serial number which allowed the computer to allocate the vote to the correct candidate. Afterwards, voters were able to check that their vote has been cast by logging on to a special website and entering their serial number.

Professor Ryan, a computer scientist who led the project, said that a successful trial run will help prove that the system could be introduced in polling stations. Eventually, the system could allow people to vote from home via the internet, but that would require further development, he said.

Professor Ryan said: 'We looked very carefully at previous electronic voting systems and we are confident that we have solved many of the problems that existed. This has not been easy but we believe that voters and politicians can have confidence in Pret a Voter.'

Pictured is Professor Ryan about to scan in a ballot paper during the trial run at the King's Road Centre.

Web links to further information:

Pret a Voter website

A new spin out company will shortly begin trials to find out whether microbes can unlock the vast amount of energy trapped in the world's unrecovered heavy oil deposits.

An estimated six trillion barrels of oil remain underground because the oil has become either solid or too thick to be brought to the surface at economic cost by conventional means.

However, scientists at Newcastle University and the University of Calgary, Canada, have set up a company, Profero Energy Inc, to build on their recent research, which demonstrated how naturally-occurring microbes convert oil to natural gas (methane) over tens of millions of years.

The company is preparing to move on-site to begin pumping a special mixture of nutrients, dissolved in water, down an oil well above exhausted oil deposits in western Canada. If the scientists' calculations are correct, natural gas should flow back out, as the microbes thrive on the nutrients, multiply, and digest the tar-like oil at a greatly increased rate.

A major advance in the understanding of the way that petroleum is degraded by microbes underground was made by a research team, led by Professor Ian Head and Dr Martin Jones of Newcastle University and Professor Steve Larter, who works at both Newcastle University and the University of Calgary, which published a ground-breaking paper in January this year in the international academic journal, Nature.

The research provided the answers to a long-standing geological puzzle by revealing that two types of microbe found in environments containing crude oil were responsible for converting it into methane. First, bacteria called Syntrophus digest the oil and produce hydrogen gas and acetic acid (the pungent ingredient of vinegar). Secondly, methanogens, a type of organism known as archaea, combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to produce methane.

The research team also discovered that the geological timescale of this process could be shortened to a few hundred days in the laboratory by feeding the oil-based microbes with special nutrients. They reasoned that similar results could be obtained in an oilfield in a timescale of a year to tens of years.

Professor Head, an environmental microbiologist in the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability at Newcastle University, said: 'The discovery of how this process works could have major implications for the oil and gas industry because we think we will be able to extend the 20-30 year operating lifespan of a typical oil reservoir.'

Both Newcastle and Calgary universities have financial stakes in Profero Energy, which is being financed with an initial £500,000, and a further £4 million earmarked for the future, by Novotech Investments Ltd, a Newcastle-based venture capital company which was established to provide backing for very high value new technologies.

Profero Energy was established in a remarkably short space of time following consultation between the scientists, the commercial development teams at Newcastle and Calgary universities, and Novotech.

Newcastle University's Business Development Directorate handled the intellectual property issues and brokered the financing deal with Novotech.

Robin Lockwood, Head of Commercial Development at Newcastle University, said: 'This groundbreaking research clearly had commercial potential and we knew that we had to act quickly and decisively to take full advantage.

'The days when universities did the research and left the private sector to develop the commercial potential are long gone. These days, governments expect universities to play a major role in economic development and that means being much more savvy about commercial opportunity,' he said.

Portable electronic pets able to recognise their owner's voice and walking style are being developed by North East researchers.

The devices, similar to the popular electronic Tamagotchi pets, are being developed as an alternative to passwords and PINs to keep personal details and accounts secure.

Called 'biometric daemons', they borrow a concept from Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series, in which people are accompanied by an animal daemon that is a physical representation of their soul.

Professor Pamela Briggs, a psychologist and computer scientist at Northumbria University and computer scientist Dr Patrick Olivier at Newcastle University, believe their idea could match the security of biometric security systems and avoid privacy fears at the same time.

Instead of an individual’s biometric signature being stored on a separate database, they would exist only in the daemon – a small gadget carried around by its owner.

It would learn to imprint itself on its owner, and then react to unique biometric signals, such as a person’s voiceprint, fingerprints or walking style.

The human-daemon bond would be further strengthened through games and interaction, with recognizable signals making the daemon ‘happy’ and able to verify the owner's identity, just like a PIN or password.

However, a daemon separated from its owner would eventually pine away and die, just as Pullman's daemons do when separated from their humans.

Dr Olivier says elements needed to make a prototype daemon already exist. Accelerometers – similar to those used in the Nintendo Wiimote – could detect an individual's gait, and speech recognition software could identify a unique voiceprint.

A paper on biometric daemons was presented by Professor Briggs and Dr Olivier at the Usability, Psychology, and Security 2008 conference in San Francisco, California, last month.

Teams at Newcastle and Manchester Universities have shown that eating tomatoes can help prevent sunburn and ageing caused by the sun.

Professor Mark Birch-Machin at Newcastle University, along with Prof Lesley Rhodes of the University of Manchester, examined the effect of lycopene – found in tomatoes and other red fruit and vegetables - on the skin.

Their study, presented at the British Society for Investigative Dermatology this month, showed that eating tomato paste could help protect against sunburn and sun-induced skin ageing.

In the study, researchers compared the skin of 20 people, half of whom were given five tablespoons (55g) of standard tomato paste with 10g of olive oil every day, with the other half receiving just olive oil, over a period of 12 weeks.

The skin was exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light - which is found naturally in sunlight - at the beginning and end of the trial. The team found significant improvements in the skin’s ability to protect itself against UV in the group which had been eating tomato paste.

Compared to the control group, those in the group which had eaten the paste were found to have 33 per cent more protection against sunburn, which can lead to skin cancer.

The researchers calculated the protection offered by the tomato paste to be equivalent to a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 1.3.

Many of the harmful effects of UV light are due to the excess production of harmful molecules known as ‘reactive oxygen species’ which can damage important skin structures.

The tomato’s key skin saving property is a powerful antioxidant called ‘lycopene’, which is able to neutralise or ‘quench’ the harmful molecules.

The team found that the lycopene had reduced damage to mitochondrial DNA in the skin, which is also believed to be linked with skin ageing.

Professor Birch-Machin says, 'Eating tomatoes will not make you invincible in the sun, but it may be a useful addition to sun protection along with sunscreens, shade and clothing.

'The protective effect of eating tomatoes on our mitochondria is important as they are the energy producers in all our body cells including skin. Therefore being kind to our mitochondria is likely to contribute to improved skin health, which in turn may have an anti-ageing effect.'

Scientists at Newcastle University have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases.

A team led by Michael North, Professor of Organic Chemistry, has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates.

The team estimates that the technology has the potential to use up to 48 million tonnes of waste CO2 per year, reducing the UK's emissions by about four per cent.

Cyclic carbonates are widely used in the manufacture of products including solvents, paint-strippers, biodegradable packaging, as well as having applications in the chemical industry. Cyclic carbonates also have potential for use in the manufacture of a new class of efficient anti-knocking agents in petrol. Anti-knocking agents make petrol burn better, increasing fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.

Professor North said: 'One of the main scientific challenges facing the human race in the 21st century is controlling global warming that results from increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

'One solution to this problem, currently being given serious consideration, is carbon capture and storage, which involves concentrating and compressing CO2 and then storing it,' he said. 'However, long-term storage remains to be demonstrated'.

To date, alternative solutions for converting CO2 emissions into a useful product has required a process so energy intensive that they generate more CO2 than they consume.

Professor North compares the process developed by his team to that of a catalytic converter fitted to a car. 'If our catalyst could be employed at the source of high-concentration CO2 production, for example in the exhaust stream of a fossil-fuel power station, we could take out the carbon dioxide, turn it into a commercially-valuable product and at the same time eliminate the need to store waste CO2', he said.

Professor North believes that, once it is fully developed, the technology has the potential to utilise a significant amount of the UK's CO2 emissions every year.

'To satisfy the current market for cyclic carbonates, we estimate that our technology could use up to 18 million tonnes of waste CO2 per year, and a further 30 million tonnes if it is used as an anti-knocking agent.

'Using 48 million tonnes of waste CO2 would account for about four per cent* of the UK's CO2 emissions, which is a pretty good contribution from one technology,' commented Professor North.

* Based on 2004 figures from the UN. Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

Web link to further information:

Press release: Technological breakthrough in the fight to cut greenhouse gases

Scientists have shown that melting ice in Greenland can drain to the base of the ice, increasing ice flow into the oceans and changing sea level.

Greenland is now well known to be losing ice to the oceans and sea level is increasing as a result. Some of the ice melts due to atmospheric temperature, but by far the fastest way to move more ice into the oceans is to speed up the process.

New field measurements from a team of scientists, including Dr Matt King in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, has shown that ice which melts in the summer when air temperatures are warmer and is then stored in surface lakes can drain through nearly 1000m of ice in a matter of two hours.

These new findings suggest that as many of these lakes drain over the summer, they act to lubricate the base of the ice where it is in contact with rock. This increased lubrication acts just like a slippery floor, with sliding becoming easier, and large areas of ice speed up by 25-50 per cent.

The good news came toward the coast, where the ice speeds up as the flow narrows into a few outlet glaciers that deliver the ice to the sea. Those glaciers moved only nine per cent faster than normal in August of 2006.

While meltwater causes a large increase in speed on the main ice sheet, the fast flowing glaciers are affected by relatively smaller amounts. That may be because the beds on which outlet glaciers slide are already smooth and well lubricated year-round. All in all, it is likely that meltwater lubrication will have a substantive, but not catastrophic, effect on the Greenland Ice Sheet's future evolution.

The movement of the ice was measured by placing Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers on the ice and running them during the winter. Dr King analysed the data to produce estimates of how they move over time. Lake depth and seismic data (similar to equipment used to monitor earthquakes) were also measured by Dr Ian Jouhgin and Dr Sarah Das, who led the study from University of Washington and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, respectively.

The combined data helped reveal very rapid events, such as when a nearby lake drained, and slower events, such as 'speed-up' of the ice in early summer and slow-down over winter. This suggests an inter-connection of lake drainage and large scale ice 'speed-up'.

In the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, where scientists attempted to describe recent climate change and predict future changes, lack of understanding of the 'speed-up' of the ice was highlighted as a key uncertainty. The two papers, published online on 17 April in the journal Science (Express), go some way to aiding our understanding of how Greenland will respond to future climate.

Article submitted by: Dr Matt King. Contact: m.a.king@ncl.ac.uk

Web links to further information:

News item in Science

Research paper 1 (PDF file)

Research paper 2 (PDF file)

Dr Sara Brown, a dermatologist at Newcastle University, based at the Centre for Life, visited 41 schools in West Cumbria involving over 800 children in this groundbreaking study.

Dr Brown found 24 per cent of children in the region had some degree of eczema. She says, “We were surprised by the fact that nearly one in four children has eczema. The number of people we’re seeing with eczema has increased over the past 10 to 20 years, possibly caused by environmental factors, although we know that our genetic make-up is also important.”

Researchers found that the gene Filaggrin causes dry skin and eczema in about 4% of these cases. While this may sound a low figure, for those who make up the four per cent, this gene plays an important part in their eczema.

“Eczema often runs in families,” Dr Brown explains, “Children inherit one copy of the Filaggrin gene from each of their parents. If one of the genes they inherit is faulty then they will have a 25 per cent risk of getting eczema. If the child inherits genes from both parents that contain the fault then they will have a 90 per cent risk of having eczema.”

This research moves scientists one step nearer to finding better treatments for this very common and distressing skin condition.

Dr Brown adds, “We wouldn’t have been able to carry out this important study without the co-operation of the schools in Cumbria and the help of the seven to nine-year-old children who took part with the support of their parents.”

Using blood samples stored from birth as part of a unique resource, the North Cumbria Community Genetics Project (NCCGP), the researchers were able to test the children’s DNA for the eczema gene. Many of the mothers who delivered their babies at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven between 1996 and 2003 agreed to donate a small sample of the baby’s umbilical cord blood to the North Cumbria Community Genetics Project. These samples have been carefully stored and they mean that scientists can study a child’s DNA without having to take another blood sample.

The research, which received funding from the British Skin Foundation, Action Medical Research, the Newcastle Healthcare Charity and the Wellcome Trust, is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Coral reefs could be dying out because of changes to the microbes that live in them just as much as from the direct rise in temperature caused by global warming, according to findings presented by a Newcastle University biologist at the conference of the Society for General Microbiology.

Tropical coral reefs, which are made up of animals called polyps that secrete hard external skeletons of calcium carbonate, are living perilously close to their upper temperature limits, making them vulnerable to even small temperature rises.

'Many of the deaths we see in the coral reefs, which occur following coral bleaching events, when huge areas of reef die off like in 1998 when 17 per cent of the world’s reefs were killed, can be put down to changes in the microbes which live in and around the reefs,' said Dr John Bythell.

Changes in sea temperature caused by climate change affect corals directly but they also affect the types of bacteria and other microflora that live with them. When the water warms up, some disease-causing bacteria are more successful and can attack the corals, said Dr Bythell.

For many communities in developing countries, which rely on coral reefs for their fisheries and tourism income, the loss of coral reefs has major impacts on their economies. They also lose valuable coastal defences and land to coastal erosion, affecting human welfare in the communities.

'We need a better understanding of the processes and mechanisms that impact on corals and the reefs when sea temperatures rise to confirm the ultimate causes of their decline,' said Dr Bythell.

'Although local actions to reverse the overall decline in reef health are probably not feasible, we need this better understanding to try to reduce or eliminate contributing causes. Some of the changes in the microbes’ environment could be locally managed, for example by reducing general pollution, cutting soil erosion into the sea which chokes the reefs, and avoiding harmful run-off from farming practices.'

Courtesy of The Society for General Microbiology

Web links to further information:

Full press release

Corals escape Tsunami damage (BBC item based on earlier Newcastle University research)

A university research team aims to design soils that can remove carbon from the atmosphere, permanently and cost-effectively.

This has never previously been attempted anywhere in the world. The research is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The concept underlying the initiative exploits the fact that plants, crops and trees naturally absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and then pump surplus carbon through their roots into the earth around them. In most soils, much of this carbon escapes back to the atmosphere or enters groundwater.

But in soils containing calcium-bearing silicates (natural or man-made), the team believes the carbon that oozes out of a plant’s roots may react with the calcium to form the harmless mineral calcium carbonate. The carbon then stays securely locked in the calcium carbonate, which simply remains in the soil, close to the plant’s roots, in the form of a coating on pebbles or as grains.

The scientists are investigating whether this process occurs as it may encourage the growing of more crops in places where calcium-rich soils already exist. It would also open up the prospect that bespoke soils can be designed with added calcium silicates, or specific plants which optimise the carbon-capture process could be grown. Such soils could play a valuable role in carbon abatement all over the globe.

The team will first try to detect calcium carbonate in natural soils that have developed on top of calcium-rich rocks or been exposed to concrete dust which contains man-made calcium silicates. They will then study artificial soils made at the University from a mixture of compost and calcium-rich rock. Finally, they will grow plants in purpose-made soils containing a high level of calcium silicates and monitor accumulation of calcium carbonate there.

The multi-disciplinary research team, including civil engineers, geologists, biologists and soil scientists, is led by David Manning, Professor of Soil Science at Newcastle University.

"Scientists have known about the possibility of using soil as a carbon ‘sink’ for some time,” says Professor Manning. ”But no-one else has tried to design soils expressly for the purpose of removing and permanently locking up carbon.

“The process we’re exploring might be able to contribute around 5-10% of the UK’s carbon reduction targets in the future.”

Article adapted from EPSRC press release. Picture of tree roots courtesy of www.freeimages.co.uk

A deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly two billion years.

Dr Simon Poulton, of the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, was part of an international team of biogeochemists who took part in the study, led by the University of California. The results are published in this week's edition of Nature.

‘For decades it was assumed that the ocean became oxygenated shortly after an initial rise in atmospheric oxygen about 2.4 billion years ago,’ said Dr Poulton. ‘This study provides independent confirmation that there was a major delay in the oxygenation of the ocean, and furthermore, it now appears that the availability of molybdenum may have played a crucial role in animal evolution.

‘At last, a coherent picture of the environmental conditions that led to the evolution of animal life is emerging.’

The researchers arrived at their conclusion after tracking molybdenum in black shales, a kind of sedimentary rock rich in organic matter found in the ocean. Molybdenum is a key micronutrient for the life-forms that control the production of oceanic and atmospheric oxygen.

Following the initial rise of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago, oxygen was transferred to the surface ocean to support oxygen-demanding micro-organisms. However, the diversity of these single-celled life forms remained low, and their multi-cellular descendents (animals) did not appear until about 600 million years ago.

Suspecting that deficiencies in oxygen and molybdenum might explain this evolutionary lag, the team measured the abundance of molybdenum in ancient marine sediments over time to estimate how much of the metal had been dissolved in the seawater in which the sediments formed.

The researchers found significant, first-hand evidence for a molybdenum-depleted ocean compared to the high levels measured in today’s oxygen-rich seawater.

Other universities involved in this research were: the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC; the University of Quebec, Montreal; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; and Arizona State University, Tempe, USA.

The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Dr Poulton is a research fellow at Newcastle University, supported by funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Web links to further information:

Press release (giving more detail)

Does who we are and where we live have any bearing on how we interpret a book? That’s the question being posed by researchers at Newcastle University, who are exploring how people react to the same books in different locations across the world.

‘What’s already emerging from our research is that wherever readers are, they rely heavily on their own local experiences to make sense of literary texts,’ said Dr James Procter, who is leading the project.

‘For example, we’ve had white readers in Liverpool, Cornwall and Scotland identifying with the West Indian characters in Andrea Levy’s Small Island on the basis of their own sense of distance from the capital.

‘This challenges current research on globalisation, migration and identity where migrant fiction tends to be discussed in terms of dislocation. Our readers suggest that location is in fact central to creating meaning.

‘Reading is about connections that travel across cultures, but it is also deeply rooted in our own local environment.’

Readers have made connections between Cornish and West Indian dialects and in Edinburgh and Glasgow, they drew parallels between postwar immigration to London and migration to the Gorbals during the same period.

‘Devolving Diasporas’ is a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project recording and analysing book group discussions in the UK, Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and India. The title of the project registers a departure from the traditional centres of migrant research: London, Bombay and New York.

Each group is discussing the following works by contemporary diasporic writers based in the UK: Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003); Andrea Levy, Small Island (2004); Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2001); and Jackie Kay, The Adoption Papers (1991)*.

‘It is a real boost having Jackie Kay on the project team,’ said Dr Procter, who is also working alongside colleagues from Stirling University on this project. ‘Not only is she a globally successful, award-winning talent, she is also a black Scottish writer who has done more to draw attention to the location of migrant culture than any other writer I can think of.’

The four books were chosen because they are currently popular on reading group lists and are also easy for readers to obtain. Kay's The Adoption Papers supports the broader aim of this project, moving away from London as diasporic literary capital and exploring what was emerging from Scotland before the genre became mainstream.

Reading groups outside the UK are also considering a fifth text with local significance. For example, in New Delhi, it is Hari Kunzru's Transmission, a novel set in both Central Scotland and Delhi.

‘Academic debate about migration, or diaspora, tends to talk in terms of a sense of being uprooted from your home,’ explained Dr Procter, senior lecturer in colonial/postcolonial literature at Newcastle University. ‘It also focuses on the extremes of either privilege or neglect, exoticism or fundamentalism, which means everyday questions of local and regional relevance are overlooked.’

The project began in Scotland last year, with reading group hubs in libraries in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In addition to the Scottish reading groups, readers have also been recorded in locations as diverse as Penzance and Port of Spain.

Researchers are transcribing and analysing each of the group’s conversations to see whether the perception of the same text differs according to the group’s location and, if it does, why these differences exist.

Individual reading groups are now being asked to come forward to take part in one-off readings during 2008. Each group will be given free copies of one of the four texts, along with an ipod on loan to record the discussion.

As part of this project, an international conference on the theme of reading in a local and global context is being hosted by Stirling University in September.

Web links to further information:

Devolving Diasporas

*Jackie Kay (MBE), pictured, is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University and the author of The Adoption Papers (Forward Prize), Trumpet (Guardian Fiction Prize) and, most recently, Life-Mask (poetry society recommendation) and a book of short stories, Wish I Was Here, which won last year’s Decibel British Book Award.

The first UK trial of a new drug which targets the DNA repair mechanism in people with hereditary forms of breast or ovarian cancer is being started by University scientists, working with the charity Cancer Research UK.

The trial is open to women who have already developed an advanced form of breast or ovarian cancer and have been diagnosed with faults in the known cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 or BRCA2.

They will receive a new drug which works by knocking out a key DNA repair mechanism in cancer cells. It does this by blocking the action of an important enzyme involved in DNA repair, known as PARP poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and is part of a class of potent anti-cancer drugs known as PARP inhibitors.

Dr Ruth Plummer, chief investigator on the trial and senior lecturer in medical oncology, said: 'People who inherit faults in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have a 50-80 per cent chance of developing cancer.'

'Currently women with hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer are treated in the same way as every other woman who develops the disease. We hope this trial will show that by using the PARP inhibitor we can offer them more targeted treatment.'

The Newcastle University team believe their research could offer hope for the future by paving the way for the drug to be used as a preventative treatment.

Dr Plummer continued: 'In the future, we may be able to use the PARP inhibitor to offer protection to women who inherit these genetic faults. We may be able to use it to 'mop up' stray cancer cells before they actually develop into tumours, thereby sparing the need for preventative surgery.'

Normal cells have two DNA strand-break repair mechanisms to repair damage or correct mistakes which may occur during replication. People who inherit faults in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes only have one DNA strand-break repair mechanism to help fix damage to their cells. This means they have a higher risk of developing cancer.

But it also means these inherited forms of cancer have an 'Achilles heel'‚ and a drug which can disable the only remaining DNA strand-break repair mechanism should also kill the cancer cell.

Professor Herbie Newell of Newcastle University, who is also Cancer Research UK's Executive Director of Clinical and Translational Research, said: 'The start of this clinical trial is a very exciting development and we look forward to seeing the results.'

The trial is open in Newcastle and is likely to take 18 months to complete. There are plans to extend it to centres around the UK. Researchers are aiming to recruit 56 women.

* Pictured above: A cancer research laboratory at Newcastle University.

Web links to further information:

Cancer Research UK's patient information website

Scientists at Newcastle University are part of a pioneering team offering a new transplant on the NHS.

Six centres around the country are involved including a group at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle led by Dr James Shaw. They will receive NHS funding to develop the ground-breaking technique for people with severe Type 1 diabetes.

The cell transplant will offer a limited number of patients the chance to produce their own insulin and involves transplanting islet cells from a donor pancreas and injecting them into the recipient’s liver.

The minimally-invasive treatment means that diabetics can live their lives with fewer or no injections.

Dr James Shaw, the chairman of the UK Islet Transplant Consortium clinical working group, and Clinical Senior Lecturer in Diabetes at Newcastle University says, “I’m delighted that the NHS has decided to fund this treatment which can offer a new lease of life to those with the most unstable diabetes. I see people who despite preventative treatment, can no longer drive a car and are unable to work because of the frequency and severity of their sudden hypoglycaemic attacks.”

Web links to more information:

Department of Health press release

Diabetics given hope, Journal

Transplant hope for "at risk" diabetics, Telegraph

Research by a Newcastle team which could eradicate many hereditary diseases has been raised in the House of Lords and attracted world-wide media attention.

The debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill referred to work by Professors Doug Turnbull and Patrick Chinnery on mitochondria and a method of replacing “faulty” mitochondria with “healthy” mitochondria in an embryo – a technique referred to in the media as having “three parents”.

Mitochondria are the engines of the cell which convert food into energy and the work of the Newcastle team involves replacing faulty mitochondria with healthy mitochondria. Mitochondrial disorders are diseases inherited through the mother and include liver failure, epilepsy, deafness, muscle weakness and diabetes.

In Parliament, Lord Walton of Detchant talked about how the Newcastle team had created embryos using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests which could ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.

Picked up on the front page of the Telegraph newspaper, the story led to huge media interest worldwide.

In the research, the nucleus containing DNA from the mother and father was removed from the embryo and implanted into a donor egg whose nucleus had been removed but which contains healthy mitochondria. The embryos then began to develop normally, but were destroyed within six days.

The team only have permission to carry out research and as yet this would not be allowed to be offered as a treatment.

Lord Walton tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill on Monday that would allow the treatment to be used simply by seeking the approval of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) rather than going to Parliament. Although it was rejected, the Government has agreed to debate the issue soon.

Web links to media coverage:

Embryo with three parents is created, The Telegraph

Three parent embryo formed in lab, BBC online

And baby makes four, Journal

Scientists, sailors and members of the general public, including a number with disabilities, conducted high quality ocean science onboard a tall ship under sail. Not only were the scientists involved in sailing the ship, they also completed their research whilst educating the non-scientific members of the crew.

Another unique aspect of the cruise was that conducting research on board a sailing ship greatly reduced the carbon footprint of the venture.

The cruise, which took place in the seas south of the Canary Islands, studied marine life ranging from bacteria right up to the great whales. Memorable highlights included sightings of several pods of minke whales, sailing through a dense patch of harmful Portuguese Men o’War and the ship having to employ its anti-piracy measures against a rather suspicious vessel, although the latter happily turned out to be a false alarm.

Led by Dr Gary Caldwell in association with the Challenger Society for Marine Science, it is hoped that this is the forerunner of many such cruises and indeed plans are already afoot for a follow-up. Also, the scientists’ experiences aboard the S.T.S. Lord Nelson – owned and operated by the Jubilee Sailing Trust - will inform the design of a tall ship specifically built for ocean-going scientific cruises as part of the Future Ship Project for the 21st Century. The new vessel will combine research, education and sail training, strongly geared towards undergraduate students.

Web links to further information:

Challenger Society for Marine Science

Jubilee Sailing Trust

Article submitted by: Dr Gary Caldwell, Marine Sciences and Technology. Contact: gary.caldwell@ncl.ac.uk

The Earth’s climate could reach its ‘tipping point’ within just a few hundred years, according to new research published this week.

The report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal shows that human-induced climate change may affect us more quickly than we imagined.

Jim Hall, Professor of Earth Systems Engineering, is among scientists who are warning that a number of systems influencing the Earth’s weather patterns could suddenly collapse due to even a slight increase in global temperatures.

Among the top ‘tipping elements’ identified is the collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (about 100 years); dieback of the Amazon rainforest (about 50 years); and the decay of the Greenland ice sheet (about 300 years). Another crucial ecological system indicator is the end of the Indian summer monsoon, which could be as little as a year away.

Professor Hall, who is based in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, worked alongside academics from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Their part in the international study involved conducting in-depth investigations with 52 experts in the field to ascertain which tipping elements they believed would have the most effect on the climate and how likely they thought this would happen.

“There’s still some diversity of opinion among experts, but following this study we are able to show which elements are universally considered to be most sensitive to climate change,’ said Professor Hall.

The study, which was led by the University of East Anglia, suggests that, in principle, early warning systems of significant climatic change could be set up using real-time monitoring and modelling.

Computer scientists at the University are leading an €18 million (£13.4m) EU project designed to make technology - from mobile phones to satellites – more robust and reliable.

With today’s computer systems complex and often susceptible to malicious attacks, it is becoming increasingly important to build-in resilience from the outset, rather than simply ‘adding it on’ at a later date.

The DEPLOY project, led by the School of Computing Science, will work across five of the most important sectors in industry today – transportation, automotive, space, telecommunication and business information.

Beginning this week (1 February), it builds upon a successful three-year project just completed by the University, which created new ways of building fault tolerance into computer systems.

These methods are now ready to be put to the test by some of the top names in industry, with five leading European companies already signed up: Siemens, Bosch, Space Systems, Nokia and SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing).

Work being carried out will feed into projects such as the 2013 European Space Agency’s mission to explore Mercury and train security on the Paris Metro.

Professor Sascha Romanovsky, who is the Project Director, said: 'It is very unusual for a university to be leading a project like this as it’s normally industry-led, so it’s a great honour for us to be working with some of the top names in European industry.

The scientists will be using formal engineering methods to test the fault tolerance of each system and refining these in an industrial setting to ensure they meet the needs of an increasingly technological society.

‘It’s often crucial that you can rely on these systems,’ explained Computing Science Professor Cliff Jones. ‘My belief is that simple systems are the only reliable ones. It comes down to reasoning – if they are too many options, then it becomes too difficult to predict what could happen.’

As well as leading the project, Newcastle University is also co-ordinating the dependability systems strand. This will involve working with several of the industrial partners to develop the technology and train them in the use of the new systems.

Web links to further information:

DEPLOY project website

Press release giving more detailed information

A team of stem cell scientists have been given permission to use animal eggs in research which aims to lead to the development of new therapies for debilitating human conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease and strokes.

Until now, work on the development of therapeutic cloning has used human eggs from consenting IVF patients but these are in short supply. Animal eggs are considered to be a viable alternative for research to understand more about how cells behave.

Dr Lyle Armstrong of Newcastle University who is based at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) has received a licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to carry out research using human-animal cytoplasmic embryos.

Dr Armstrong says “The award of the HFEA licence is great news. We initially applied for approval to use cow eggs as a means to understand the way they can convert skin cells into embryonic stem cells. Finding better ways to make human embryonic stem cells is the long term objective of our work and understanding reprogramming is central to this.”

The NESCI team will be working with cow eggs. The nuclear transfer technique would involve removing the nucleus of a cow egg - which contains most of its genetic information - and fusing the cow egg with the nucleus of a human cell such as a skin cell. The egg will then be encouraged to divide until it is a cluster of cells only a few days old called a blastocyst, or an early-stage cloned embryo. From this scientists would attempt to extract stem cells which are the building blocks that can grow into any type of tissue such as liver, heart and muscle cells.

Dr Armstrong says, “Cow eggs seem to be every bit as good at doing this job as human eggs so it makes sense to use them since they are much more readily available but it is important to stress that we will only use them as a scientific tool and we need not worry about cells derived from them ever being used to treat human diseases.

Now that we have the licence we can start work as soon as possible. We have already done a lot of the work by transferring animal cells into cow eggs so we hope to make rapid progress.”

What did you eat for breakfast? Well, would you mind tucking into croissants, cornflakes, orange juice and tea - and all for the cause of science?

A team in the Human Nutrition Research centre is looking for 48 people to take part in a study. They will be looking to see if what people are eating can be measured through small molecules in their blood and urine as opposed to them having to use traditional methods such as keeping food diaries. This new scientific tool is called "metabolomics".

Anyone wanting to take part needs to be a non-smoker and healthy. In addition men need to be over 18 and women need to have passed the menopause.

Volunteers will be offered £10 for taking part and will be reimbursed for travel expenses.

To take part in this study or for more information please contact Dr. Gaëlle Favé in Clinical Medical Sciences by e-mail gaelle.fave@newcastle.ac.uk or on 0191 222 5951.

Large ice-sheets existed on Earth about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods since life began, an international team of scientists, including members from Newcastle University, has found.

The findings, published in the journal Science, challenges the popular assumption that large glaciers could not have existed in the 'super greenhouse' climate, when tropical surface ocean temperatures reached as high as 35-37C (95-98.6F) and alligators lived in the Arctic.

Scientists from the USA, UK, Germany and Netherlands found evidence of an approximate 200,000 year period of widespread glaciation during the Turonian 'super-greenhouse' period of the Cretaceous, with ice sheets about 60 per cent the size of the modern Antarctic ice cap.

The team obtained their evidence from detailed analyses of sediments that were deposited in the western Equatorial Atlantic Ocean at that time.

The sediments, recovered by drilling into the ocean floor off Suriname in South America, 'captured' chemicals that were present at the time, providing the researchers with clues about the temperature, composition and salinity of the seawater. Detailed analysis found evidence consistent with periods of glacial formation.

Professor Thomas Wagner, of the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability at Newcastle University, said: 'Speculation about whether large ice caps could have formed during short periods of the Earth's warmest interval has a long history in Geology and climate research, but there has never been final conclusive evidence.

'This uncertainty remained, as there is very little direct evidence from high latitude rocks supporting or disproving the concept; also computer simulations have difficulties to accurately model climate conditions at polar latitudes during past greenhouse conditions'.

'Our research from tropical marine sediments provides strong evidence that large ice sheets indeed did exist for short periods of the Cretaceous, despite the fact that the world was a much hotter place than it is today, or is likely to be in the near future'.

Web links to further information:

Press release in full

Fifteen women undergoing IVF are the first to receive half-price treatment in return for donating half their eggs for research.

They will get IVF treatment at Newcastle's Fertility Centre at Life and came forward after the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) received final approval and funding for the scheme known as egg sharing.

Under the scheme, women receive about half of the cost of their IVF treatment, £1500, in return for the donation of half their eggs.

One hundred women came forward and, after testing and counselling, fifteen were found to be suitable and six begin treatment this month.

Scientists at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) believe the funding will lead to an increase in the number of eggs for research which could lead to faster progress in stem cell therapies. The project continues over two years.

Professor Alison Murdoch who is leading the project at the North East England Stem Cell Institute says "We are delighted at the excellent response from women in the North East to this important research. We hope that significant progress will be made in the research and that it will also help many couples to have a family from IVF treatment."

People interested in finding out more about the egg sharing scheme should call 0191 282 5000 and leave a name, address and number or download more information and a form at www.nesci.ac.uk

Some of the media coverage of this story:

Success of the great fertility egg sale, Northern Echo

Comment: Fair shares, Northern Echo

Deal for IVF women, Journal

As many people found themselves travelling for family gatherings this Christmas and New Year, researchers have shown that grandparents on the mother's side make the extra effort.

The study shows that the amount of social interaction between extended family members depends on whether people are related through their mother or father.

Thomas Pollet and colleagues at Newcastle University and the University of Antwerp, Belgium, investigated how far maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents will go to maintain face-to-face contact with their grandchildren. They found that maternal grandparents were willing to travel further in order to sustain frequent contact with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents.

Mr Pollet says, “During the festive period, we can still see that family get-togethers are integral to the celebrations. Many people go the extra mile to ensure they meet up – and we’ve found that’s particularly important if family members are related through mothers.”

The study is available online in the current issue of the journal Evolutionary Psychology.

Web links to further information:

Mum’s mum loves you more, Financial Times

Mum’s the word on grandparents, The Journal

Bad news dads - mother-in-law's visiting, Telegraph

Press release issued by Newcastle University

Researchers think they may have found a way of extracting more energy from the world's oil reserves - and possibly abandoned coalfields, like those in North East England

The team of geologists and biologists have been studying the little-understood process by which naturally-occurring microbes deep below the ground convert oil and coal to natural gas, or methane, over many millions of years.

They believe that this process could be speeded up, possibly by simply feeding the microbes nutrients like vitamins and minerals down boreholes.

If the theory works in practice, oil and possibly coal reserves that are currently uneconomic to extract from the ground could be converted to sources of methane.

The findings of the research, led by Professor Ian Head and Dr Martin Jones, of Newcastle University, and Professor Steve Larter, who works at both Newcastle University and Calgary University in Canada, are published online by Nature

It was already known that most of the world's oil reserves are affected by microbes, to some extent. This reduces the value of the oil by making it thicker and more costly to extract. Some reserves have been left in the ground because it would be uneconomic to work them.

Little was known about the process by which the micobes 'biodegraded' the oil. By studying the actions of microbes in laboratory tests, over a two year period, the team discovered that the process was started by a species of anaerobic bacteria called syntrophus, which digested the oil and produced a mixture of ethanoic acid - or vinegar - and hydrogen gas. However, another type of microbe, methanogens, which belongs to the archaea family was then combining the liberated hydrogen with carbon dioxide and turning it into methane.

The scientists now hope that the discovery can be applied commercially to oilfields and possibly coalfields.

Professor Head, of the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, said: 'There are potentially major economic implications to these findings, since a proportion of the trillions of barrels of oil, currently regarded as unworkable, could in theory be converted into methane, or natural gas.'

'In North East England, similar processes may occur in abandoned coal mines, opening the door to a possible means for recovery of the region's extensive abandoned energy resources as clean-burning methane.'

Professor Head pointed out that burning methane as a fuel, for example in power stations, produces about ten per cent less greenhouse gas than burning coal or oil.

'Clearly any development of fossil fuel resources needs to be coupled with appropriate technologies to mitigate their effects on climatically active emissions', he added.

The Systems Biology Resource Centre (SBRC), which was established at the University to support research into systems and integrative biology, has attracted major funding to develop an advanced system of handling data.

The £2.8 million grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is to develop the ONDEX system, which enables diverse biological data sets to be linked, integrated and visualised through graph analysis techniques. ONDEX can be used in a number of important application areas such as transcription analysis, protein interaction analysis, data mining and text mining.

Systems Biology focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems. It brings together biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers to grapple with some of the most challenging scientific problems of the day. The SBRC was established jointly by the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering to provide computational resources, tools and research expertise.

Dr Anil Wipat, who directs the SBRC, and David Lydall, Professor in the Biology of Ageing, are collaborating with Professor Darren Wilkinson, Dr Phil Lord and colleagues from Rothamsted Research, Manchester and Edinburgh, to develop the ONDEX framework.

'Bringing data together coherently is a huge undertaking in any systems biology project,' said Dr Wipat. 'ONDEX will play a very important role in making this possible.'

Meanwhile, Newcastle University’s Centre for Integrated Systems Biology of Ageing and Nutrition (CISBAN) has hosted a major gathering of the UK research teams which are benefiting from the BBSRC's £85 million investment in this area.

'Ageing is an enormously complex process', said Professor Tom Kirkwood who directs the £6.4m programme within CISBAN. 'It is only by bringing together highly detailed knowledge from different molecular components in the body that we can hope truly to understand it. We were therefore delighted to be chosen as one of the BBSRC’s first three centres to be funded in this area.'

Not only does basic research on a hard problem like ageing need a systems approach, but also industry recognises the need for this novel way of working, said Professor Kirkwood. Unilever plc, with its interests in healthy ageing, has added to the funds for CISBAN, and the pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to bring these approaches to bear on the design of new drugs, he said.

Earlier this year, CISBAN played host to a gathering of the world’s leading biological model developers. Dr Colin Gillespie, in the School of Mathematics & Statistics, convened the international Systems Biology Markup Language ‘Hackathon’ conference.

Web links to further information:

Systems Biology Resource Centre

Previous press releases about systems biology at Newcastle University:

University wins £6m to study ageing and diet

Food for thought

University company tests MRSA drugs

Medicines from the rain forest

Nearly 700 new patients have come forward for a dental check up after an appeal in the media. The patients will be seen by third or fourth year dental students from Newcastle University, under the supervision of experienced dentists.

Patients are needed as Newcastle University has more students training to be dentists following £1.25 million investment here to help address shortages across the country. For the last two years, the number of students taken on each year increased from 70 to 100.

Pieces on BBC Radio Newcastle, TV’s Look North and in the Journal created an influx of calls and nearly 700 people had registered within five days.

Professor Jimmy Steele of Newcastle University, pictured below in the School of Dental Sciences, says, "It was great to get such a response. These students are already highly trained and have the skills needed to treat patients but need to gain greater experience. This was why we were keen for more people to come forward for this one-off treatment and the take-up has been fantastic."

“We’re now responding to the people who called us to get them to come in for a check up and the students may even be able to provide further straightforward treatment for some of them.”

Web links to further information:

The Journal, North students help fill gap in dental care

BBC online, Patients to aid trainee dentists

Researchers from the University's Centre for Rehabilitation and Engineering Studies (CREST) in the School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering have teamed up with Sheffield based Company, JRI Ltd, and surgeons in Nottingham to develop a new range of orthopaedic implants for older people with painful or damaged shoulder joints.

The Newcastle team, led by Professor Garth Johnson, Director of CREST, has over 15 years' experience in the biomechanics of shoulders.

Using hi-tech camera systems, they have been able to study in detail the shoulder function of people with joint-related problems, and have developed a sophisticated computer model which calculates the load a shoulder joint typically has to carry.

Professor Garth Johnson, Director of CREST, said: 'Until now, the major focus of joint replacement techniques has been on hips and knees. The design of shoulder replacements is challenging because of the complexity of the joint and the difficulties attaching the artificial joint components to the bones'.

The collaboration between CREST, Professor Angus Wallace at Nottingham University and JRI, has been made possible through support of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) award to the University.

The KTP award enables graduates to knowledge and develop their expertise in the commercial sector whilst furthering their academic career.

Recent Newcastle graduate, Ian Flatters (pictured right with JRI Managing Director, Brian Jones) is now employed by the University as a KTP Associate, working towards an MPhil. He is based at JRI's premises in Sheffield, where he is working under the joint supervision of Professor Johnson and JRI on the design for a prosthetic shoulder which will lead to the manufacture of implants for clinical use.

Researchers wishing to discuss Knowledge Transfer Partnerships should contact Fiona McCusker at the KTP Unit on ext 5911 or e-mail Fiona.McCusker@ncl.ac.uk

Web link to further information:

Newcastle University KTP homepage

CREST

Eating wholegrain foods is thought to be good for health and studies have shown that an increased consumption of wholegrain foods is associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease, diabetes and some cancers). However, the particular amount of wholegrain foods that might be responsible for this health benefit is not clear.

To help clarify the issues involved, the 'GrainMark' Study to be undertaken in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development aims to find out whether substances naturally present in whole grains are absorbed in the gut and appear in blood and urine, and whether they can be used to make better assessment of wholegrain intake in populations.

The investigators are looking for 64 healthy, non-smoking volunteers who are willing to take part in the study which will involve eating supplied whole grain foods for two months and supplying small blood samples and urine samples for analysis at regular intervals.

If interested in taking part in the study, please contact grainmark@ncl.ac.uk or call 0191-2226619.

Web link to further information: GrainMark Study information

Article submitted by: Dr Sumanto Haldar, Agriculture Food and Rural Development. Contact: grainmark@ncl.ac.uk

The trial known as IBIS-2, is running at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle for women with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Each year nearly 2,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the North East and 44,000 women are diagnosed with the disease in the UK.

The IBIS-2 trial is run by by Cancer Research UK and it is the first trial ever to investigate whether a breast cancer treatment drug called anastrozole can prevent the disease in postmenopausal women at higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Previous research on the drug as a treatment for early breast cancer showed that it reduced the risk of developing another cancer in the opposite breast by over 50 per cent but this will be the first time the drug is being investigated as a preventive measure. The IBIS-2 trial started in the UK in 2004 and has been running in the North East since September 2006.

The study is open to post-menopausal women (women who have stopped having regular periods), who are aged between 40-70 years, are not on HRT, and have a family history of breast cancer or other risk factors (such as certain types of non-cancerous breast lumps). This includes women whose mother or sister had breast cancer or ovarian cancer by the age of 50 or under.

Tom Lennard, Professor of Breast and Endocrine Surgery at Newcastle University and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, said: ““Women who decide to take part in this important study will be making an enormous contribution to breast cancer research, helping us to prevent breast cancer in future generations.”

People who want to find out more about the trial should call 0808 800 4040 or visit www.ibis-trials.org.

Web links to further information:

The Journal, Women at risk needed for cancer drug trials

A team of University researchers are taking the first steps to determine how climate change is affecting Antarctic ice sheets.

David Barber will spend four months installing GPS signal receivers on two huge plateaus of ice that cover the sea, so that their movements can be monitored by satellite.

These measurements will enable other members of the project team in Newcastle, led by Dr Matt King (pictured), to calculate how much the ice sheets rise and fall with the tides. This will pave the way for much more accurate measurements of the thickness of the ice sheets, so that scientists will know whether and how fast the ice is melting.

David was due to fly out to west Antarctica this week. Over the next few weeks will plant about 15 receivers on the vast Ronne ice shelf, which is about the same size as France.

He will then plant receivers on the smaller Larsen ice sheet, which featured in the opening scenes of the climate change disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, in which Hollywood special effects made it appear as if the ice sheet cracked as it was being drilled.

Matt said: 'The Larsen sheet is quite famous because a couple of years ago, a chunk about half the size of Cumbria and a few hundred metres thick broke off in a matter of days - you could say that the real life scenario has exceeded Hollywood's expectations!'

As a result, there was a very small increase in sea level, but scientists need to know the condition of the ice sheet across its whole expanse, said Matt.

'Satellite measurements have helped us make great progress in mapping the entire ice sheet, but we still don't actually know how quickly the ice sheets are melting, if at all, but it is important that we find out and monitor the situation so that we can anticipate any rise in sea level.

'The tides are very large in this part of the world - perhaps eight to ten metres - and we need to know how this affects the ice sheets lying on top of the sea before we can measure their thickness.

The research project is being carried out by the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle University and is being funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. Support for the project is being provided by the British Antarctic Survey and the Earth and Space Research organisation, Oregon, USA.

Once the effects of the tides have been taken into account, the picture will be much clearer. Upwards movement will mean a thickening of the ice and downwards thinning. Seasonal variations are normal but scientists will be looking for long-term changes.

Technology traditionally used to communicate with underwater vehicles is now destined to help divers in distress.

Newcastle University, working with Cumbria-based Tritech International, has created ‘DiveTrack’, which was has just won an international design competition set up in memory of a British diver.

The device enables divers to send a distress signal to the surface if they get into difficulty, allowing a boat crew to rapidly locate the diver and attempt a rescue.

It was originally developed for communicating with ‘subsea’ vehicles or instruments which explore and drill oil and gas fields below the ocean floor. It works by sending ultrasonic sound waves between the divers and a surface unit up to 800m away.

The DiveTrack technology is deliberately low cost and uses very little power. It is about the size of a small torch, takes normal alkaline batteries, and can be strapped onto a diver’s arm. The batteries last for about two months, allowing emergency services to continue to locate divers some time after they go missing.

‘It’s very easy for rescue divers to miss somebody in the water, especially in poor visibility,’ explained Jeff Neasham, senior research associate from the University’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, who led the development team. ‘By accurately locating a diver in distress, this low cost device could be lifesaving.

‘When the diver pulls the cord out, a distress signal is activated, an alarm goes off at the surface and a blinking LED lets the diver know that help is on its way,’ he explained. ‘The surface unit then provides the boat crew with range information accurate to within a metre.’

During testing with the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) in Scotland, divers several hundred metres away were pinpointed within minutes of setting off the distress alarm.

Further improvements to the product currently in progress include an underwater interface to enable simple text messaging. The device could also be connected to the diver’s breathing apparatus to alert the surface crew if any technical problems occur.

The team at Newcastle University has been developing a number of similar products with Tritech International over the past few years, all using underwater acoustic communication technology.

‘This is undoubtedly the most exciting use of the technology yet, due to the difference it could make to so many people,’ said Mr Neasham.

The design competition was set up by the family of Penny Glover, who died with her dive buddy Jacques Filippi during a diving accident in 2005. The NU-Tritech team hopes to have the Divetrack product on the market early next year.

The team will pick up an award and £10,000 prize at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Award Ceremony in London on 13th November 2007.

A cancer fighting technology which uses UV light to activate antibodies to very specifically attack tumours has been developed by Newcastle University scientists.

Professor Colin Self and Dr Stephen Thompson (pictured below) have found a way of cloaking antibodies which can then be activated by UV-A light and so be targeted to a specific area of the body just by shining a probe at the relevant part.

This procedure maximizes the destruction of the tumour while minimising damage to healthy tissue.

Professor Self says, “I would describe this development as the equivalent of ultra-specific magic bullets. This could mean that a patient coming in for treatment of bladder cancer would receive an injection of the cloaked antibodies. She would sit in the waiting room for an hour and then come back in for treatment by light. Just a few minutes of the light therapy directed at the region of the tumour would activate the T-cells causing her body’s own immune system to attack the tumour.“

The details are contained in two papers published in the current issue of the journal ChemMedChem.

Professor Self and Dr Thompson are now preparing to begin clinical trials next year with patients who have secondary skin cancers. They will be carried out through BioTransformations Ltd, the company set up by Professor Colin Self to develop the technology.

Web links to further information:

The Guardian, New therapy targets cancer, not healthy cells (featuring a video produced by BioTransformations Ltd)

The Journal, Cancer gets the bullet

The Times, “Magic bullet” devised to beat cancer

Press release issued by Newcastle University

BioTransformations Ltd

An inventive way of improving password security for handheld devices such as iPhones, Blackberry and Smartphone has been developed at Newcastle University.

The software, which uses pictures instead of letters and numbers, has been initially designed for handheld devices, but could soon be expanded to other areas.

Those who took part in testing this system created passwords that were a thousand times more secure than ordinary textual passwords. Most testers also found them easy to remember.

Researchers now want to examine the system’s potential for helping people with language difficulties, such as dyslexia.

Today, the use of passwords is commonplace in everything from mobile phones to cash machines and computers. But in the wake of growing concerns about traditional ‘weak’ passwords created from words and numbers, Newcastle University computer scientists have been developing alternative software which lets the user draw a picture password, known as a ‘graphical password’.

“Many people find it difficult to remember a password so choose words that are easy to remember and therefore more susceptible to hackers,” explained computer scientist Dr Jeff Yan, a lecturer at Newcastle University.

Along with his PhD student Paul Dunphy, Dr Yan has taken the emerging Draw a Secret (DAS) technology, a graphical password scheme where users draw their secret password as a free-form image on a grid, and taken this a step further.

In DAS, the user draws an image, which is then encoded as an ordered sequence of cells. The software recalls the strokes, along with the number of times the pen is lifted.

By superimposing a background over the blank DAS grid, the Newcastle University researchers have created a system called BDAS: Background Draw a Secret. This helps users remember where they began the drawing they are using as a password and also leads to graphical passwords that are less predictable, longer and more complex.

The BDAS software encouraged people to draw more complicated password images e.g. with a larger stroke count or length, that were less symmetrical and didn’t start in the centre. This makes them much harder for people or automated hacker programs to guess. 'In essence, this is a very simple idea as it’s intuitive,” said Dr Yan. 'It may take longer to create the password initially but it’s easier to remember and more secure as a result.'

For example, if a person chooses a flower background and then draws a butterfly as their secret password image onto it, they have to remember where they began on the grid and the order of their pen strokes. It is recognised as identical if the encoding is the same, not the drawing itself, which allows for some margin of error as the drawing does not have to be re-created exactly.

'Most of us have forgotten a pin number or a password at least once, which is why we tend to make them so easy to guess,” said Dr Yan. “However, the human mind has a much greater capacity for remembering images, and it’s certainly true that a picture is worth a thousand words in this instance.'

People who took part in the Newcastle University study, which compared DAS and BDAS use, had to choose their own background from a selection of five images – stars, map detail, playing card, crowd and flower.

After creating their secret password images on the grid, they were asked to repeat what they had initially drawn. One week later, they were asked to re-create the same image and 95% BDAS users were able to do so within three attempts.

'The recalled BDAS passwords were, on average, more complicated than their DAS counterparts by more than 10 bits,' said Dr Yan. 'This means that the memorable BDAS passwords improv